no kidding. I've been trying to catch up on these posts and have no fucking clue what any of this has to do with anything substantive going on in Iran.
My question is: why single out Iran for a country lacking western liberal norms or even a country where people are struggling to gain some democratic control over their government? This is my main suspicion with all the mainstream coverage of this issue. To choose another event in the same time frame, a couple of weeks ago Peru's army opened fire on protesting indigenous communities, killing at least 30, likely more, as they tried to force them off their land in order to make way for some US imposed FTA vis a vis oil. I heard nothing about it from the endlessly excitable US media and the focus here seems to be following their lead as well--or did I miss the thread about Peruvian women wanting to wear bikinis? Point being: of the two, the Peruvian thing seems to be a much closer to home (i.e. reaction against actual US norm being imposed--one which contradicts those basic democratic freedoms which are implicitly presumed to exist within the good ol usa) yet Iran carries the day, both here and in broader US culture.
Possible reason for this: 1) ongoing: fine I'll give you that. But what made it go on? Why now? 2) graphic images: Iranian gov't vs. web 2.0 3) incredibly powerful forces w/in US/Israel that would like to see Iran re-taken
I mean, seriously, we could be having this discussion about virtually any country on the planet, including the US on some level. I'm highly suspicious of it coinciding with a serious US policy discussion. I have been since reading Danny Postel's affirmation of the liberal turn in iran a few years ago, and finding it wholly arbitrary in what he saw as "liberal" i.e. everything that wasn't to the right of his already rather conservative understanding of liberalism.
cf: http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2007/2007-February/003124.html http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2007/2007-February/003104.html
Lenin's Tomb had a good post on his website about this at the time and I've missed what he's had to say about this hubbub (though I've not been keeping up w/ his blog as I should lately). Anyway my question to the list ultimately is, what is so special about Iran and why is there all this banal bickering over that society rather than any other? I ask this especially because it doesn't seem that anyone is all that concerned with the rather clear evidence that the US government is involved in aiding the destabilization. Is it because there is some potential that a more liberal society would emerge from the chaos of a collapsed Iranian state thus we're more willing to give the covert operations a free ride? After watching what transpired in Iraq, does anyone really believe that? I'm seriously confused here and after a good faith effort to trace back these threads I am none the wiser as to how this conversation is dominating this list--and resulting in such internecine squabbles. It really seems to be about attacking other list members for being morally bankrupt, but I've yet to see anyone articulate the morality to which we should be adhering.
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