[lbo-talk] Countering the Politics of Fear (was Tariq Ali at UCLA today)

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Sun Oct 29 07:51:17 PST 2006


On 10/29/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Oct 28, 2006, at 11:32 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> >> Are these Western leftists?
> >
> > Yes. They live in the West and are unlikely to go back to Iran and
> > live there permanently.
>
> Because they can't think, write, or live freely. They'd be at risk of
> being arrested or killed. Doesn't it give you pause that the kinds of
> Iranians - people who no doubt have family and friends in Iran - who
> identify with MR find your position offensive?

Actually, a number of Iranians I know, who are liberal or leftist, have gone back to Iran, for family visits, research, and so on (including my Farsi teacher Saeed), and one of them, an economist, has settled into it for a long haul, teaching at the University of Tehran.

I intend to say hello to him once I get there.

Those who don't go back have made a positive choice of preferring the West to Iran, which is understandable. The West is richer, freer, etc. for those who come from class backgrounds that most Iranian leftists hail from than Iran or any other country outside the West.


> > She's lived in the West for a long time as well, longer than I have
> > been, for all I know. Nothing in the article below is over the top,
> > though, nor anything else by her I have read. If her work seems very
> > persuasive to you, perhaps you might tone down your rhetoric to her
> > level.
>
> Thank you very much for the rhetorical advice, which I'm going to
> ignore.

I doubt that over-the-top rhetoric helps anyone. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>



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