[lbo-talk] Iran before Ahmadinejad (was capital punishment in Iran)

Wojtek Sokolowski swsokolowski at yahoo.com
Sat May 5 06:55:56 PDT 2007


--- Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages at gmail.com> wrote:


> Moreover, US leftists' job in an anti-sanctions
> campaign and the like
> is to present the aspects of nations in the South
> that are missing in
> or distorted by or marginalized in the corporate
> media, so Americans
> can learn more about them and get motivated to seek
> normal relations
> with them, overcoming the White House and Congress's
> propaganda. If
> all leftists are saying is the same thing as the
> corporate media or
> even worse, what's the point of listening to
> leftists? Why not all
> just read the New York Times, watch ABC, etc.?
> --

[WS:] While I agree with the above, you seem to go much further than mere debunking of the US propaganda.

You seem to be suggesting that Iranian nationalism (and Third World nationalism in general) is somehow preferable to the US nationalism (aka "imperialism") or Israeli nationalism (aka "zionism"). And that is what I, and I believe others on this list, find disingenuous.

If we reject nationlism in principle, then US "imperialism" or Isareli "zionism" is no better or worse than Iranian nationalism, everything else being equal. So why defending Iranian nationalism as something "better" than other nationalisms?

Of course, everything else is not being equal, and most rational people would agree that the US or Israeli nationalism offers a far better protection of human rights, the rule of law, and democractic governance than the Islamist variety. Therefore, most rational people would prefer to live under the US or Israeli nationalism than under the Islamist variety. But that is a matter of personal preference, I suppose.

Wojtek

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