Posted on 12/26/2005 9:07:25 AM PST by F14 Pilot
RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari recently sat down with Kaveh Basmenji to discuss his book, "Tehran Blues," and prospects for Iranian youth.
RFE/RL: What do you think is the most important thing to know about Iran's youth today?
Basmenji: As far back as we look in Iranian history, there have always been dogmas and ideals and utopias that have formed the aspirations of all generations -- and particularly the younger generations. The characteristic of this generation -- which has come to the forefront and experienced the whole reform movement, [as well as] the so-called Tehran spring and its death, its end -- is that they aspire to no dogma and to no predetermined goal -- be it Marxism, Leninism, Islamic fanaticism, a return to self, or any sort of imported sociological dogmas or theories from the West.
RFE/RL: You write that that you have spent the last 25 years of your life dealing with Iranian youth. You also have two teenage boys yourself. How have the attitudes of young people -- their aspirations, their ideals and demands -- changed in the past 25 years? And what has prompted today's youth to turn away from past ideals and the values imposed by the Islamic establishment?
Basmenji: For one thing, I think the most striking factor is that 27 years or so ago, for the first time in Iranian history, a ruling system took over whose agenda was to transform the personality and the way of thinking of every individual in society. And to that end, it began relentless, 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week propaganda and indoctrination. As a result of all this state propaganda, what we see at the end of the day is that young people are getting away from the notion of a state religion -- farther away with every day that passes.
So, in my opinion, although the Iranian people are still religious people in a very sort of spiritual and individual sense, they have moved miles away from the notion that religion could shake the political system and offer solutions to the everyday problems of your life.
RFE/RL: Today most young people despise violence. They value human life and its pleasures, and they want change -- but not at any cost. During [former President] Mohammad Khatami's eight-year tenure, some achievements were made in that direction, and people enjoyed some freedoms. Some have expressed concern that -- now that a hard-liner, the ultraconservative Mahmud Ahmadinejad -- is the president, things can change and some of those achievements might be reversed. What is your view?
Basmenji: Personally, I think it's the contrary. Because I don't see that Khatami and his tenure changed the attitude or the outlook of the younger generation toward life and society. It was the other way around; it was because of the pressure of the upcoming generations that Khatami came to power in the first place. He was a result of this phenomenal social cause, and not the other way around. So if you look at this social phenomenon as it was engendered by the young generation's demands that Khatami and the whole reform movement started -- so to speak -- we can see that there should be no turning back -- although there could be temporary drawbacks or halting points or turning points, whatever. But this third force, this younger generation, is coming; and any government -- any ruling system -- has to deal with it, with the younger generation that is in touch with the outside world and cannot be confined within dogma, within political, religious, [or] ideological indoctrination.
RFE/RL: Some compare this third force -- the Iranian youth -- to a dormant volcano. You have used another metaphor: Referring to a poem by Molana, or Rumi, you write that the Iranian youth is like an elephant in the dark. Could you explain?
Basmenji: I think both metaphors work. First of all, because as observers we tend to look at the developments in Iran -- particularly because Iran has captured the attention of the world during the reform movement of the past eight years. But mostly these observations have been one-dimensional and one-sided, depending on which angle we have been viewing Iranian society from -- and the youth in particular. Whereas obviously the youth movement's -- the younger generation's -- demands and their way of life is a multidimensional thing. It's been affected by myriad factors during long, long years. So that's why I call it the elephant in the dark. Depending on who you are and which angle you're looking [from], you see a certain aspect of this multidimensional animal.
I also called it a "dormant volcano" because there is an immense force -- because it is a very, very young population, and it's a very energetic population, and it's in contact with the outside world. It cannot be shut down. It knows the Internet; it's in touch with the world via satellite. There are more than 700,000 blogs in Iran alone, and Persian is the third [most-popular] language, after English and Chinese, being used on the Internet. So with this thriving generation, with this crashing wave, it's obvious that there is potential for explosion -- but that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be an explosion, an eruption.
FREEDOM FOR IRAN PING
You are being an optimist. The only hope in Iran is the imposition of external force to remove the police state that has complete control over the population.
Allies under control of a fanatical regime are unreliable and ineffective. Iranians are sending suicide bombers to Iraq, yet to the best of my knowledge not one has sent him or her self to Tehran in opposition to the regime.
These stories are designed to give the west hope of internal change while the regime develops long range delivery systems for their nuclears.
Excellent point.
Why doesn't someone shoot a rocket at that idiot President of theirs?
Because it would have the same effect on their people as flying jets into the WTC had on ours. My father used to tell me that any fool can learn form his own mistakes, but if you’re smart you’ll learn from the mistakes of others.
Assassination attempt on Iran's Ahmadinejad?
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | December 17th, 2005
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1542599/posts
Profiles In Democratic Courage (NOT!)
CaptainsQuartersblog.com ^ | December 23, 2005 | Captain Ed
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1546368/posts
none of the sep.11 terrorists were from Iran
Right. What's your point.
my point is that the Iranian nation is not a terrorist nation, the illegitimate government of Iran is
An attack generally galvanizes nationalistic instincts. If we attacked Iran for building nukes, supporting terrorists and threatening Israel, the sympathies of its people would likely be overwhelmed by popular anger at what they’d perceive as an foreign power overreaching to impose their values by violence, especially if it wasn’t supported by the EU (which is unlikely) or Russia (which is certainly not going to happen). If we take out Iran’s nukes, it will either need to be very precise and very clean, or need to follow some aggression to further justify it. Otherwise, the price will be a more united and perhaps more dangerous opposition.
agreed
War is never precise nor surgical nor clean ... neither is mass destruction in the hands of madmen ... the events of the 1930's and 40's should have taught us well.
They murdered 243 Marines in Lebanon and blew up the US embassy a couple of times IIRC.
So, when the Iranian people start gibbeting these thugs in the streets I'll let the Iranian people off the hook for the actions of their government.
I also find this line from the article interesting. "They value human life and its pleasures, and they want change -- but not at any cost. "
That makes them pussies who won't fight for their own freedom. If they won't fight for their own freedom they can't complain if they get caught in the crossfire.
L
have you ever lived under dictatorship?
if your answer is No, then please stop lecturing us on how we should fight our way out of this mess
thnx
Make a few of those 'religious police' thugs disappear when they show up at your neighbors homes and I'll stand up and applaud.
Now your 'leaders' are playing with nuclear fire and threatening to wipe other countries off the map. What are we supposed to do, stand around and do nothing while those madmen carry out their plans?
We sat around while your government carried out the most hideous religious persecution against the Ba'Hais a while back. We aren't going to let your country go nuclear.
This Americans advice to you is to get busy trying to bring this regime down by whatever means necessary because if you don't we're going to.
L
I would prefer to hear how Iranian youth feels and thinks from Iranian youth, thank you. I wonder how many of the 700,000 Iranian bloggers refer to themselves as a volcano or an elephant?
"So with this thriving generation, with this crashing wave, it's obvious that there is potential for explosion -- but that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be an explosion, an eruption."
Does he have an opinion or not? It's rather difficult to tell, isn't it?
I disagree with you Lurker
Since we do not hear about their unrests, protests and actions on CNNCBSABCNBCCBCBBC.... it doesn't mean that they aren't fighting
Indeed I believe they are and if you read more, you can see that they do what they can
The problem as I see it is that the Iranian government is populated by murderous thugs while most of the people just want to live in peace. This is a serious dilemma considering that your government is openly developing nuclear weapons.
We simply cannot tolerate that. So, the clock is ticking for Iran and it's long suffering people.
Good luck.
L
And the unlikelihood of being able to reproduce Israel’s surgical success against these targets is why we haven’t attacked. If we started a war now, it would be us against 95% of the world. That would harden Iranian nationalism and resistance, we’d be drained, and the only winner would be Democrats blaming neocon unilateralists for our humiliation.
Keep an eye on the Iran futures on intrade.com
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