Reza Afsahari

8/11/2019 Reza Afsahari

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ISSN 1751- 8229Volume Three, Number Four Special Issue: ie! a"# Ira"

Sla$o% ie! a"# Ira"&s Summer o'

(isco")e")s: *e)ur" )o +a)ollah homei"i&s(reams.

Reza Afshari - Professor of History and Human Rights, Pace University,

USA.

Slavoj ie!"s intellectual forays into areas for #hich he $ossesses no dee$ !no#ledge may at

times offer %rilliant insights, often eluding academics %urdened %y detailed !no#ledge of their

$articular e&$ertise ' the uni(ue #orth of an iconoclast #ho $o!es his in(uisitive nose into every

torrid $ot of human a%surdities. Ho#ever, occasional fau& $as may also accom$any such nifty

insights.

)y o%serving that *the $rotesters sa# themselves as returning to the roots of the +

homeini revolution, and canceling out the corru$tion that follo#ed it,/ ie! misreads the

essential differences %et#een the + cro#ds and the 011 $rotestors. 2ie! 0113 45 *6his

#as evident in the #ay the cro#ds %ehaved3 the em$hatic unity of the $eo$le, their creative self-

organisation and im$rovised forms of $rotest, the uni(ue mi&ture of s$ontaneity and disci$line.

Picture the march3 thousands of men and #omen demonstrating in com$lete silence./ 2ie!

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0113 45 7arly in + 8 stood on 6ehran"s side#al!s and %e#ilderedly #atched the furious

cro#ds, tram$ing shoulder-to-shoulder !ilometers of its main streets. 6he 011 demonstrators

#ere so unli!e the + cro#ds9 the latter #ere organized %y the neigh%orhood mos(ues, and

once they hit the main streets of the revolution, they #ere anything %ut silent3 aggressively self-

righteous and violent, s$e#ing slogans #ith $articular 8ranian rhythmic fervour, one of #hichim$lored homeini to let them *s$ill %lood/. 6he Ayatollah"s consent came tacitly, and the

cro#ds" *s$ontaneous/ zealotry %loodied the secular 8ranians and forced them out of the

mainstream of the revolution. 6he 011 events did not indicate *a genuine $o$ular u$rising on

the $art of the deceived $artisans of the homeini revolution./ :ot sur$risingly, they loo!ed

ahead, see!ing no return, $articularly to a grand, *li%erating/ narrative that %y its very grandiosity

%ecomes stifling and e&clusionary of those #ho don"t deserve %eing *li%erated / ' no return to

the totalistic demands on the individual citizen for sacrifice and self-diminution.

6he most %efuddling as$ect of the 8ranian socio$olitical realities is the country"s class-culture divide, #hich remains untouched %y ie! masterful stro!es. A country at a culture-#ar

#ith itself, it e&hi%its a %izarre class realignment #here men of $easant origins and medieval

dis$ositions, $laying thuggery, rise to the highest level of military $o#er9 #here the #or!ing

class finds itself in a tactical alliance #ith their $otential e&$loiters, the secular %ourgeoisie9 and

#here after thirty years of clerical rule reclaiming the 8slamic authenticity of the dis$ossessed,

the mainly secular modern middle classes are still the nation"s cultural ar%iters;enchanters. 6he

regime constantly $uts on dis$lay the *real/ face of 8ran ' the scruffiness of the lo#er classes

com%ined #ith unso$histicated $iety and 8slamic $olitical militancy. 6his austere image iscontrasted #ith the *other/ 8ran of secular middle-class ha%its often on dis$lay in the

economically %etter-off neigh%orhoods of northern 6ehran. 8t is not a class-struggle e&hi%it.

A vigorous class analysis #ill

create little clarity9 it is hard to see manifestations of class struggles %uried under thic! lavas of

cultural de%ris, authentic or manufactured. Ayatollah homeini and su$$orters have channeled8ran"s ra# $o$ulist feelings against their domestic o$$onents. 8t can %e sho#n that neither their

class-%ased $olitical vie# nor their cultural grandstanding has %een $rogressive, at least in

terms of their $redicta%le outcomes. 6he religiously-infatuated minds of the *masses,/ constantly

%eing reminded of the nation"s humiliation in the hands of =estern ne#-im$erialist $o#ers, have

generated their o#n $sycho$athology. 6he 8slamic re$u%lic offers a tro$hy of learned lessons3

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$roducts that in turn fashioned ne# signs and sym%ols9 the immediacy of a$$earance signified

the onset of ne# social distinctions, re$lacing the older, more restrictive categories ascri%ed %y

the tradition. Under the Shah or the Ayatollah, the consumers of the =estern commodities and

signs, delineating a modern lifestyle, !e$t gro#ing. 6oday, the Asian economies are successful

not %ecause they are the $urveyors of the authentically Asian tastes, %ut %ecause they arehighly atoned to the $revailing glo%al modalities of the =estern-designed goods and services,

chea$ly flooding all the non-=estern ur%an mar!ets, including 6ehran"s. American o%servers,

often o%sessed #ith it themselves, call it *outsourcing,/ diminishing the trend"s transformative '

for %etter or #orse ' influences. 6he highly negative as$ects of such a transformation cannot %e

chec!ed %y cultural-religious fundamentalisms.

6his #ay of life is characterized not so much %y its anti-religious ethos as %y its

immanently $ractical and self-serving dis$osition and attitude to#ards the contem$orary needs

and desires, ultimately rejecting the $ermanency of anything that claims legitimacy %eyond anda%ove its rendered value. =ith great cost and immense sacrifices, the modern middle class

culture of the *other/ 8ran ' des$ite all its $arado&es and contradictions that the earlier nativist

intellectuals had so $atiently e&$loited ' has refused to %e molded or remade %y the $o#er of

the ecclesiastical master $lan. And today, much more deli%erative efforts are needed to reverse

the enormously costly conse(uences of the current glo%alization than the ones concocted %y

the regressive states, or in 8ran"s case, %y the dim#itted functionaries of the


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mostly young 8ranians fervently reclaiming their votes in the summer of 011 can only %e

com$rehended #ithin the conte&t of the structural limitation that ma!es every election cycle

$otentially e&$losive. 6he very logic of this carefully designed electoral $rocedure #ould %e

su%verted %y a candidate #ho may a$$ear #illing to %e co-o$ted %y the *other/ 8ran and %ecome

solicitous to#ard the needs and as$irations of those #ho are not terri%ly loyal to the institutionsof the 8slamic Re$u%lic. 6he reasons for such an a$$arent co-o$tion are com$le&, often

de$ending on the $u%lic image of the individual candidate at a $articular time. 8n the +

electoral cycle, the relative $o$ularity of the $residential candidate


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resides in a metro$olis, #here the democratic $rocess still offers a $rotective shield, an

enormous $ersonal s$ace, that such an intellectual re(uires. Ho#ever, it offers little $ractical

insights to %e used %y young 8ranians #hose restricted $ersonal s$ace suffocates and #hose

*crisis of democracy/ lies not in its $ostmodern ossification %ut in its infantilism, in its arrested

gro#th in $re-modernity.6he =estern *crisis of democracy/ dee$ens. ie! $ostulates that *democracy"s

authentic $otential is losing ground #ith the rise of authoritarian ca$italism, #hose tentacles

are coming closer and closer to the =est./ ?nly time #ould sho# #hat *coming closer and

closer/ may mean. 6o coin interesting terms and thro# them around may not necessarily lead to

clarity, $articularly in a case that $ur$orts to lin! 8ran"s %uffoon #ith 8taly"s clo#n. 8n )erlusconi"s

8taly, the %ourgeois directly controls the state $o#er. *)erlusconi is a significant figure, and 8taly

an e&$erimental la%oratory #here our future is %eing #or!ed out./ 6hus, the =est faces an

a$$roaching *authoritarian ca$italism/ that coha%its #ith *fundamentalist $o$ulism/ andconcurrently reconciled #ith *$ermissive-li%eral technocratism./ 6his is an amazing admi&ture,

$articularly if #e !ee$ in mind that one of its tri$artite com$onents is Asiatic in its reincarnation,

*coming closer and closer to the =est/. )erlusconi may not %e such an enduring figure in 8talian

$olitics, and under intense scrutiny %y 8taly"s magistrates, he seems em%attled today.

8 am still $uzzled. Ho# did my curiosity a%out #hat ie! may say a%out 8ran %ring me to

)erlusconi"s *fundamentalism/> 8s it su$$osed to resonate #ith my image of Ahmadinejad"s

*fundamentalism/> 8 have to !ee$ in mind that ie!"s discursive s#ing from the Ayatollah"s 8ran

to 7uro$e came #ith his mentioning of the Singa$orean Jee uan Ge#, #ho gave currency tothe *Asian values/ in order to deflect the charges of human rights violations. ie! lin!s the

conce$t of *Asian values/ to ca$italism. *6he virus of authoritarian ca$italism is slo#ly %ut surely

s$reading around the glo%e./ 6hen, he comes to the seemingly unsto$$a%le $lague that is

s$reading from Asia to 7uro$e. *@eng Kiao$ing $raised Singa$ore as the model that all of

Dhina should follo#. Until no#, ca$italism has al#ays seemed to %e ine&trica%ly lin!ed #ith

democracy. :o#, ho#ever, the lin! %et#een democracy and ca$italism has %een %ro!en./ @id

it %rea! in Dhina> Ho# could there %e a lin! %et#een t#o things 2ca$italism and democracy5

that Dhina never had in any su%stantive #ay> Ho# could the lin! %et#een one none&istenceand another none&istence %e %ro!en> Ho# could the Dhinese model that had never %een %ased

on either *ca$italism/ or *democracy/ %e a$$lica%le to =estern 7uro$e that, follo#ing ie!"s

o#n argument, have sho#n acute crisis of over aging in %oth of those fronts> 6hings are far

from clear.

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7ven if #e grant that in )erlusconi"s 8taly the %ourgeoisie is the master $u$$eteer,

e&$loiting the state to maintain its class interests, #e may have difficulty recognizing its

counter$arts in the Dhinese *authoritarian ca$italism./ Such a class is still%orn in Dhina, even

though the Dommunist Party is ho$ing to %etter register its %irth $angs. 6hose #ho reside in

=estern metro$olises, #here $olitical democracy ma!es their lives $retty tolera%le, to say theleast, do have intellectual res$onsi%ility to *confront the limitations of $arliamentary

re$resentative democracy./ Ho#ever, 8ranians do gra$$le #ith its a%sence. 8f glo%alization is to

entice our $olitical $hiloso$hers to sideste$ the $ro%lems created %y the s$ecificities of the

glo%al $re-modern and the $ost-modern e&$eriences, they offer no valua%le vista to either one

of these e&$eriences to move for#ard, $rogressively. 8n the case of 8ran, to $roject $ostmodern

e&$eriences onto a cultural s#am$ of the hard-to-die residues of 8slamic medievalism is a

do#nright misreading of the $redicaments, not to s$ea! of the as$irations, of the 8ranian youths.

*e'ere"ces

Shahram hosravi. 011E. Young and Defiant in Tehran2University of Pennsylvania Press5, $.EF.

Slavoj ie!. 011. *)erlusconi in 6ehran,/ London Review of Books, 4+3+L 204 Muly, 0115, $.4-.

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Reza Afsahari