> You're totally full of shit, Carrol.
... and went on to quote:
> Dabashi:
> "For over a decade, a massive, grassroots, Reform Movement inside
> Iran has shaken the degenerate and corrupt foundation of the clerical
> rule to its foundations.
Isn't this, erm, a little overstated? Shaken to the roots? And one may or may not approve of the clerical regime, but in what sense is it "degenerate?" From what? Then there's the puzzling metaphor of a "degenerate foundation" -- and why the caps on Reform Movement? But I'm degenerating into mere lit-crit here. Sorry.
> Iranians in and out of their
> homeland, as well as anyone else slightly interested in their fate,
> have known these and some have fought valiantly to bring them to
> world attention." For Yoshie, and evidently you too, these people -
> [...] don't exist or are just liberal running dogs
> of imperialism.
I can't speak for Carrol, or Yoshie, but for me, at least, that's not quite right. It's more that the liberal, anti-clerical, anti-imperial, emigre opposition is... well... inconsequential.
Don't get me wrong. In spite of his somewhat spattery purple prose, I'm quite willing to believe that Dabashi is a smart, humane, thoughtful individual. If I knew him I'm sure I would value his acquaintance.
But really, it's hard to think of a social formation -- apart from the American Left, of course -- who are more thoroughly beached, or benched, than the liberal emigre Iranian opposition. Reading these understandably bitter Jeremiads is like reading the story of Macbeth, as written by a squirrel who formerly dwelt in Birnam Wood.