The Mullahs

[DRSB]

Protests in Iran, time to overthrow those bearded types! Really, Iran is a great country and should be allowed to shine!

https://www.ft.com/content/b444d098-ed9 ... 7e26d1aca4

Iranian police clashed with anti-regime protesters on Saturday as the biggest nationwide anti-regime demonstrations in nearly a decade entered their second day with thousands of people demanding change and chanting slogans against the country’s top leaders.

In Tehran on Saturday, riot police used batons and tear gas to disperse demonstrators, while at Valiasr Crossroad — a hot spot for pro-democracy rallies — hundreds of protesters chanted “death to the dictator”, destroyed fences and set fire to rubbish bins, eyewitnesses said.

Videos on social media showed demonstrators in western Tehran tearing up a banner of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and ultimate decision-maker. In other cities, protesters chanted “death to Khamenei” and called for the removal of clerics from power.

[pErvinalia]

Trump will save the Iranian people.

[cronus]

That's what they are saying here about Brexit, except without the bearded types to overthrow. Seems a recipe for commercial suicide without a plan.

[cronus]

You can argue lots of revolutions start out without a plan? then history is littered with failed revolutions and scant improvement after upheaval. Who are the instigators in Iran today? What gives behind the scenes? What are the intentions of the hidden hand of capital, religion or ideology?

[pErvinalia]

Hillary.

[JimC]

You can argue lots of revolutions start out without a plan? then history is littered with failed revolutions and scant improvement after upheaval. Who are the instigators in Iran today? What gives behind the scenes? What are the intentions of the hidden hand of capital, religion or ideology?

The reality is probably that the fervent muslim revolutionaries of the past have tired, and are showing signs of weakness, at least compared to their heyday. Power vacuums get filled...

[Rum]

If history teaches us anything it is that revolutions only ever seem to result in short term elation and optimism for the people concerned and then an inexorable return to corruption and loss of liberty. Just look at Russia and South Africa, not to mention Iran - and there are many more examples.

The rise in the middle classes and the improvement in the lot of women on the other hand, arguably has a much longer term impact on the prosperity and well-being in countries where they have been allowed to flourish.

[cronus]

If history teaches us anything it is that revolutions only ever seem to result in short term elation and optimism for the people concerned and then an inexorable return to corruption and loss of liberty. Just look at Russia and South Africa, not to mention Iran - and there are many more examples.

The rise in the middle classes and the improvement in the lot of women on the other hand, arguably has a much longer term impact on the prosperity and well-being in countries where they have been allowed to flourish.

The wisdom of years Rum. No quick fixes to worldly issues. A revolution is a tool in the hands of people who already hold some power and want more.

[DRSB]

I know many Iranian cavers, they are scientists, researchers, atheists, Iran always had a great education, these people cannot stand the Mullahs.

[Brian Peacock]

You can argue lots of revolutions start out without a plan? then history is littered with failed revolutions and scant improvement after upheaval. Who are the instigators in Iran today? What gives behind the scenes? What are the intentions of the hidden hand of capital, religion or ideology?

Yes, people are sheep and do nothing for good or ill unless the shepherd makes them. You really should drop this kind of slave thinking Crumps - join the revolution, liberate your mind from the tyranny of tradition!

[cronus]

You can argue lots of revolutions start out without a plan? then history is littered with failed revolutions and scant improvement after upheaval. Who are the instigators in Iran today? What gives behind the scenes? What are the intentions of the hidden hand of capital, religion or ideology?

Yes, people are sheep and do nothing for good or ill unless the shepherd makes them. You really should drop this kind of slave thinking Crumps - join the revolution, liberate your mind from the tyranny of tradition!

Same with Royalists as Mullahs. No one wants them in power, but themselves and their under-educated cronies. Yet, the price of freedom here or there might be civil war, certainly no one is going to give up power in any particular niche, and we've seen enough of that territorial pissing in the modern era. Saying that it'll ultimately pan out how it does. Nothing very much we can do here on the day either. History is made by victors not the vanquished. So keep fit and watch the news. Tempest of history will come this way soon enough.

[Brian Peacock]

It's an illusion, a conceit, to believe that one stands apart from the hurricanes of history. Those winds blow strongly against all our cheeks.

[Hermit]

Oh Persia, cradle of human civilisation, the storms you keep being lashed by. Mohammad Mosaddegh pulled you out of your feudal, Islamic theocracy, but that did not suit the fossil fuel industry which replaced him with a vainglorious dictator. At least the Shah was OK with women's rights. The ayatollahs who ousted him in turn were not.

I hope today's opposition will succeed in steering you back to the path Mosaddegh lead you to.

[cronus]

No one mentioned 'how much oil!!!' yet?

[Brian Peacock]

Hermit did.