Mainly it produces a "black hats, white hats" syndrome. All "revolutionaries" are good and anyone who would let a capitalist into his house without first spitting on him is bad. As Leninism has crumbled, there are fewer men and women in fatigues holding rifles aloft and pointing to the future. Clearly we're getting desperate.
Over the years one has heard cries of victory about Tony Blair and Lionel Jospin (turned out they were thoroughly capitalist Europeans). We've heard in about the Chinese Communist Party (now the world's biggest third world dictatorship, selling their low-wage people to the West) and Vietnam (smaller, but likewise), even maniacs like Kabila (not exactly a glorious victory there). Of course there's always good, old Fidel.
Now we've got the left praising Chavez to the heavens. Okay, he's an interesting character, but I think the jury is still WAAAAY out on him. Ortega? Well, we'll see.
But when we are reduced to praising the Iranian "revolution" we have really dropped any pretense of sanity. At least the others pretended to be Marxist. The Iranian regime is a classic example of a right-wing coup against a weak, Western-looking leader. Right-wing coups are not rare.
Iran has interesting aspects. There is a sort of a Leninist look to the leadership, but if the Leninists were full of crap, we can hardly expect the Iranians to be the vanguard of the proletariat, now can we?
Defiance of the West is not, in and of itself, anything. Qadaffi, the regime in Sudan, the "People's Kingdom" of North Korea, Milosovic - are we to praise these people also?
Come on.
Iran is a thoroughly racist, bigoted, theocracy. It's not at all clear to me that Iran's modern aspects are not more the legacy of the Shah, rather than the Islamists. In any event, what does the Iranian model have to offer? The Iranians have used the "Great Satan" as an organizing principle for years. Wow, wonderful. Let's teach everyone to hate America and Jews - that'll lift them out of poverty. Oh, wait a second, they already DO hate America and Jews and they are all as poor as mice.
Iran offended the United States and has survived the retribution. Great. You know what? Generally, the United States does not profit from retribution. The capitalist United States profits from....well...profit. Capitalists profit from peace and trade. That's why they only fight wars in the periphery. That's why Wall Street didn't collapse when George Bush Jr. lost so badly. Capitalists are in it for the long term.
What the Yoshie syndrome is about is short-term thinking. You want an enemy, a cause, something emotionally satisfying - something that has drama. But that's silly. Capitalism is showing some serious long-term problems - not in the periphery of Iraq or Iran, those are really pretty trivial. The long-term problem is that the anarcho-capitalism of Friedman (whom I still respect, while hating him) is failing. Right-wing religion (the organizing force in Iran) is failing. For that matter, religion itself is failing. The whole model of an anarcho-capitalist oligarchy mollified by Protestant probity and supported by a military state is failing.
It's not that Islamism is some sort of counter-example. Islamism is the extreme application of the right-wing religious politics the Republicans used. That's why they can't fight it.
In general terms, conservatives - whether in Iran or the U.S. - raise "values" above the community those values are meant to serve. We on the left raise up the community as the sovereign. Regimes based on the old religions will never raise the community above God.
Analyze Iran, discuss Iran, but please, let's not forget who runs Iran, how and why.
boddi