Monday, June 22, 2009

The Power of the People in Iran

Despite calls by the Ayatollah to stop all protests and respect the results of the recent Iranian election, people continue to pour into the streets in revolt.
Posted by TheBirdAbout2Fly at 2:03 PM

4 comments:

  1. MazJune 22, 2009 at 3:40 PM

    absolutely stunning. Marginalized as the left is, I think we sometimes forget the sheer size of the masses, potentially mobilized. Not to be idealist: with the order to shoot to kill, this could have turned out differently. But still, it is an indication of where our potential strength lies - and something that they other side can never duplicate.

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  2. TheBirdAbout2FlyJune 22, 2009 at 9:50 PM

    mmm hmmm. it really shows, I think, how the STATE is not this invincible giant it's made out to be. Of course, the final chapter is far from written. Do you think that because it turned out differently that says something about what the police are thinking in this situation?

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  3. MazJune 22, 2009 at 10:16 PM

    I think if the mullahs want they could crush a protest like that, gun people down. This happens more often than you'd think around the world, most recently in madagascar. the cost for them would political legitimacy and creating a whole new generation of revolutionaries. police tend to just follow orders..BUT sometimes the political moment is such that the ideological glue holding a society breaks down to the extent that state institutions become unreliable, eg, some soldiers refuse to fight, some police refuse to show up for work...this is part of what turns a political crisis into a revolutionary situation.

    I say some because there is rarely full-scale collapse - the exception I can think of off the top of my head that comes closest is Cuba - which is why revolutions are usually quite violent.

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  4. TheBirdAbout2FlyJune 22, 2009 at 11:32 PM

    Well, it looks like the Man (in this case Ayatollah Khamenei) is keeping us from showing the video now. Please be assured, there was awesome to be seen. Plenty more to come.

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