COUNTERREVOLUTION, NOT REFORM

Backers of Iranian Reform Fight Tide of Frustration: Critics Say Movement Has Become Irrelevant (Afshin Molavi, July 13, 2003, The Washington Post)

A faded, nearly shredded picture of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami peers at customers from the back of Mitra Azad's computer in a travel agency in central Tehran. Pen marks on the smiling president's salt-and-pepper beard and the curled-up edges of the sticker offer evidence of a hasty attempt to remove it.

Azad, 28, once a devoted supporter of the president who called for greater political and social freedoms and what he termed Islamic democracy, admits taking a pen to the sticker. "He has disappointed me," Azad said. "I truly believed in him, but he and his reformist group are simply not effective. He is not willing to fight for us. So I no longer want him on my computer." [...]

Students and democracy activists recently called for Khatami's resignation in nationwide protests that included blistering anti-government slogans. In details of a speech made public yesterday, Khatami said he would step down if the people wanted him to, the Associated Press reported.

"We are not masters of people but servants of this nation. If this nation says 'we don't want you,' we will go," Khatami was quoted as saying.

Many members of the politically active student groups recall with bitterness the impotence that reformists displayed in 1999 during a crackdown on nationwide student protests that left at least five people dead and hundreds in jail. On Wednesday, some of the Iranians who gathered to commemorate the fourth anniversary of those protests dismissed the reformist movement as irrelevant.

"They are useless," said Mehrnaz, 33, a homemaker who attended the rally and who, like many of the people interviewed, gave only one name. "They just speak nice words but do little."

Despite the agonized yelps heard from the Left and Europe at the time, the Administration would seem to have been right last year when it dismissed Khatami as Gorbachevian and started calling for the Yeltsin's to step forward.

What Iran needs more than anything right now though is for someone with this kind of clarity of moral vision to come to the fore, Live Not By Lies (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, February 18, 1974, The Washington Post)

At one time we dared not even to whisper. Now we write and read samizdat, and sometimes when we gather in the smoking room at the Science Institute we complain frankly to one another: What kind of tricks are they playing on us, and where are they dragging us? gratuitous boasting of cosmic achievements while there is poverty and destruction at home. Propping up remote, uncivilized regimes. Fanning up civil war. And we recklessly fostered Mao Tse-tung at our expense-- and it will be we who are sent to war against him, and will have to go. Is there any way out? And they put on trial anybody they want and they put sane people in asylums--always they, and we are powerless.

Things have almost reached rock bottom. A universal spiritual death has already touched us all, and physical death will soon flare up and consume us both and our children--but as before we still smile in a cowardly way and mumble without tounges tied. But what can we do to stop it? We haven't the strength?

We have been so hopelessly dehumanized that for today's modest ration of food we are willing to abandon all our principles, our souls, and all the efforts of our predecessors and all opportunities for our descendants--but just don't disturb our fragile existence. We lack staunchness, pride and enthusiasm. We don't even fear universal nuclear death, and we don't fear a third world war. We have already taken refuge in the crevices. We just fear acts of civil courage. [...]


The circle--is it closed? And is there really no way out? And is there only one thing left for us to do, to wait without taking action? Maybe something will happen by itself? It will never happen as long as we daily acknowledge, extol, and strengthen--and do not sever ourselves from--the most perceptible of its aspects: Lies.

When violence intrudes into peaceful life, its face glows with self-confidence, as if it were carrying a banner and shouting: ``I am violence. Run away, make way for me--I will crush you.'' But violence quickly grows old. And it has lost confidence in itself, and in order to maintain a respectable face it summons falsehood as its ally--since violence lays its ponderous paw not every day and not on every shoulder. It demands from us only obedience to lies and daily participation in lies--all loyalty lies in that.

And the simplest and most accessible key to our self-neglected liberation lies right here: Personal non-participation in lies. Though lies conceal everything, though lies embrace everything, but not with any help from me. [...]

So in our timidity, let each of us make a choice: Whether consciously, to remain a servant of falsehood--of course, it is not out of inclination, but to feed one's family, that one raises his children in the spirit of lies--or to shrug off the lies and become an honest man worthy of respect both by one's children and contemporaries.

And from that day onward he:

Will not henceforth write, sign, or print in any way a single phrase which in his opinion distorts the truth.

Will utter such a phrase neither in private conversation not in the presence of many people, neither on his own behalf not at the prompting of someone else, either in the role of agitator, teacher, educator, not in a theatrical role.

Will not depict, foster or broadcast a single idea which he can only see is false or a distortion of the truth whether it be in painting, sculpture, photography, technical science, or music.

Will not cite out of context, either orally or written, a single quotation so as to please someone, to feather his own nest, to achieve success in his work, if he does not share completely the idea which is quoted, or if it does not accurately reflect the matter at issue.

Will not allow himself to be compelled to attend demonstrations or meetings if they are contrary to his desire or will, will neither take into hand not raise into the air a poster or slogan which he does not completely accept.

Will not raise his hand to vote for a proposal with which he does not sincerely sympathize, will vote neither openly nor secretly for a person whom he considers unworthy or of doubtful abilities.

Will not allow himself to be dragged to a meeting where there can be expected a forced or distorted discussion of a question.

Will immediately talk out of a meeting, session, lecture, performance or film showing if he hears a speaker tell lies, or purvey ideological nonsense or shameless propaganda.

Will not subscribe to or buy a newspaper or magazine in which information is distorted and primary facts are concealed.

Of course we have not listed all of the possible and necessary deviations from falsehood. But a person who purifies himself will easily distinguish other instances with his purified outlook. [...]

And if we get cold feet, even taking this step, then we are worthless and hopeless, and the scorn of Pushkin should be directed to us:

"Why should cattle have the gifts of freedom?

"Their heritage from generation to generation is the belled yoke and the lash.''

Mr. Solzhenitsyn was promptly exiled from the USSR, but his vision ultimately triumphed. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 13, 2003 11:38 AM