Now that the insanity of the research project is nearly complete, I cannot help but notice the striking similarity between the abysmal outcome of the Iranian Revolution and other revolutions of the past. The Iranian people had a dream of a new nation where tyranny would cease to exist once and for all. They had dreamed of a free society where freedom of expression and some minimal form of civility where people could not be rounded up in the middle of the night and sent to secret prisons.
It’s not hard to see why many Iranians felt threatened and oppressed by the Shah and his ruling party. The Shah of Iran imposed many new “Western” ideals upon the Muslim people of Iran – presumably to bring Iran into the new century. However, as with any absolute rule, power always seems to corrupt absolutely. Despite his best efforts, the Shah’s legacy of tyranny and oppression had been no different than his predecessors. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was supposed to change all that. The people demanded CHANGE they could believe in, and they fought for it with fervent vigor.
Unfortunately, things change for the worst. Women lost what little rights they had in an effort to enforce conformity and “religious morality” in the new Islamic Republic. Research on the subject of populist revolution has opened my eyes as to how easily the public can be made to believe that change is necessarily good. Things did change drastically for the average Iranian - one can believe that.
Some of those changes include newly formed morality patrols that roam the streets of Iran offering imprisonment or even death for saying anything that challenges the religious elite, or even for wearing banned lipstick, perfume, or short skirts. It seems that the average Iranian had only replaced one form of tyranny with other, and sworn allegiance to a new Supreme Leader – the Ayatollahs. If anything, the new regime had turned back the clock of progress and stifled the cultural and industrial evolution of Iran. The desire for “change” at any price had come at a terrible price in human lives, dignity and economic stagnation for the Iranian people.The Russian Revolution did not fair much better with its failure to live up to the dream of a utopian society; nor did the populist revolutions of Vietnam or Cambodia in the 1960’s. Even the idealistic, feel-good promises of “change we can believe in” during our last Presidential election have left much to be desired. While our President may have had the right intentions at heart, our lawmakers have squandered the opportunity these past 2 years to take the heartfelt enthusiasm for a approach to government with less “politics as usual” and more controlled spending. Instead, it seems that the new ruling party has only managed to twist the dream of change into a nightmare of party politicos, poor resource management, and in fighting. Perhaps we should all be careful what we wish for the next time we get the urge to change things so abruptly. Once we had over the proverbial keys to a new ruling elite, one can never be sure if we really will be any better off than before until its too late.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I really liked your blog. I loved the wording and the way you described everything because it gave me a clear image of how you felt about the research project. Through your blog, I notice that you learned a lot through the research project. It’s actually sad to think of the women in Iran and how their freedoms can be taken away so easily. I never realized that these women were under so much pressure and under authority by the male figures. I also think that it’s unfortunate to see a society go back in time rather than progressing into a new culture because of a new regime. These governments could so easily destroy everything the previous governments took so long to build and develop. My favorite part of your blog were the last couple sentences where you stated that people shouldn’t want change so fast without thinking because they are unaware of the outcome: “Perhaps we should all be careful what we wish for the next time we get the urge to change things so abruptly. Once we had over the proverbial keys to a new ruling elite, one can never be sure if we really will be any better off than before until its too late.” This was well expressed! Well, I really liked your blog. I just wanted to wish you luck with this class and future classes you may take!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great warning for revolution. Great historical examples by the way of Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia. I instantly thought back to even the French Revolution. The angry people overthrow the monarchy, only to give rise to a dictator like Napolean. Looking back at history, it actually seems that we've spent more time in a state of war and upheaval then in peace and order. So I decided I’d look it up. I thought I remembered some sort of statistic about there being like 27 years of peace on the earth, but couldn’t find that anywhere. Closest thing I got was a period of peace within Europe from 1815 (end of the napoleonic wars) to 1914 (beginning of world war one) but that was only within Europe, while European countries still waged many colonial wars with countries outside of Europe.
ReplyDeleteSeems like we have not done much to learn from history our mistakes. It’s interesting how the problem usually seems to lie within the power that is afforded to a ruling class or elite, regardless of their place of the political spectrum. I think that’s one thing that we can take from this class. Power is the problem, not people.
- Ben Andrews : )