We can talk -- as long as we drop surrealism. :->
> > I'd rather go to Iran and do people-watching at Vanak Square in the
> > affluent northern Tehran -- that's where chic cafes and nice shops
> > are, smartly dressed young people -- many of them secular and liberal
> > and perhaps English-speaking -- hang out, and those who are so
> > inclined can pick up hustlers and prostitutes (or so my Persian
> > teacher -- such a darling! -- tells me). :->
>
> Those aren't Islamists. Many of them are, in some sense, Moslems, but
> they're not theocrats, and would dearly like to see the theocrats
> deposed. Aren't those the very people you were recently denouncing
> while celebrating Ahmadinejad, who doesn't have much in common with
> the chic and smartly dressed liberals.
The kind of intellectuals we might meet while doing people-watching at Vanak Square write poetry, make films, etc. -- very good ones that we'd enjoy. They are cultured, beautiful people you want to have at your salons, dinner parties, gallery openings, and so on. But they are totally useless -- as useless as you and me -- when it comes to the task of politically and militarily defeating the demented Islamists who dream of the 7th century. For that purpose, we need battle-tested Machiavellis -- foxy republicans -- of West Asia -- like my Persian Prince, Hasan Nasralla, Ismail Haniyeh, Moktada al-Sadr, etc. -- populist Islamists who inspire fervent devotion among masses of poor devout Muslims who are incomparably hardier than liberals and leftists at Vanak Square and are therefore capable of fighting front-line battles of the 21st century in defense of modernity and civilization threatened by demented Islamists and imperialists -- and the secular dictatorships of Syria and Algeria. That is called a division of labor. Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx would approve. :-> -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>