> It seems evident that, were you in Iran, you and others on the list would be
> watching the unfolding events from the balconies with sardonic detachment
>
> Would you ever join a movement for democratic rights aimed at deposing the
> present regime? How would it differ from the one which presently exists?
[remainder of catechism snipped]
These are hard questions to answer, and some of them I think are silly -- what kind of movement would I *like* to see in Iran? Who cares what I (or any of us) would like or wouldn't?
If I were in Iran, and spoke the language, I would presumably have a better sense of what's going on. As it is, the stuff I'm reading in English and French mostly seems to be reading events in Iran through the preferences and presuppositions of the commentator.
No doubt various kinds of energies have been evoked and are now in play. My initial skepticism about Moussavi's we-wuz-robbed action mostly had to do with my skepticism about Moussavi's agenda, and the impression I had of his social base. But perhaps it's bigger than that now, and if so, it will no doubt become clearer as the days go by what else is involved.
One can sympathize with lifestyle demands -- I like seeing girls in bikinis as much as anybody -- but still regard them as rather shallow. And then one has to have some respect for the larger culture. There is no reason our ideas of prudery and modesty should be normative, and if prevailing cultural standards in Iran find bikinis as unacceptable as we would find nudity on the subway, then that's just tough for the belly-shirt crowd in North Tehran.
But you ask a good question about deposing the regime. The Islamic Republic as such seems to enjoy considerable legitimacy among the population in general -- though many people may be unhappy about things like corruption, unemployment, and other specific matters. It's not clear that "deposing the regime" is on the agenda at all, if I understand correctly what you mean by that phrase.
But suppose it were. The answer is that I'd support the present regime if I thought the insurgents were likely to take Iran back into the imperial fold, no matter how enlightened and "modern" they might be about swimming pools and so on. That for me is the crux of the matter. I feel pretty sure that some at least of the forces now in the streets would end up doing exactly that if they were in the driver's seat, and that's why I remain skeptical.
History seldom offers us an a la carte menu -- I'll have the anti-imperialism with a side order of modernity, please. Choices, to the extent we have them at all, mostly consist of the Hobson's variety.
One choice we *do* have, however, is whether or not to toss puerile personal reflections at each other. I recommend abstention.
--
Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org