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clash between ideology & reality
#1
There was a very interesting column by Rober Fulford in the National Post the other day about a book called 'Reading Lolita in Tehran' by Azar Nafisi.<br>
Here is an excerpt:<br>
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***<br>
The book chronicles, among many other things, Nafisi's appalling collision with reality. In the early 1970s, studying in America, she was a student rebel. Unlike most of her contemporaries, however, she had the dreadful experience of seeing her politics produce results. As a leftist Iranian at the University of Oklahoma, she gave passionate speeches "against the tyrants back home and their American backers." She supported the revolution against the Shah, and after he abdicated, in 1979, she and her husband returned to Tehran.<br>
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They eventually discovered they had helped install a monstrous dictatorship. She found herself living in a place where men were afraid to look into the eyes of a woman, and women were flogged for wearing a veil improperly. Women learned that they were to show the world only the oval of their faces, framed by a scarf -- and, incidentally, no coloured shoelaces. They discovered they must not lick an ice cream cone in public.<br>
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"We all helped create this mess," Nafisi's husband said. As she watched oppression moving into every corner of society, she realized that they had replaced the Shah "with a far more reactionary and despotic regime." Iran moved from authoritarian government (which was terrible) to totalitarian government (which turned out to be much worse). In America the word "revolution," as she and her friends used it, implied freedom. In Iran it meant the opposite.<br>
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Within the safety of an American university the most vicious slogans she uttered seemed safe. She could shout (as she now puts it) "Death to this or that," knowing she was dealing in purely symbolic terms. "But in Tehran in 1979, these slogans were turning into reality ... all the dreams and slogans were coming true, and there was no escaping them."<br>
***<br>
<br>
Be careful what you wish for...<br>
<br>
The author of the book, Nafisi, is now living back in the U.S. Surprise, surprise.<br>
<br>
Wendy<br>
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<p></p><i></i>
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#2
I've given up trying to figure out certain countries, and their people. <p>Magnus/Matt<br>
Legio XXX "Ulpia Victrix" Coh I<br>
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"I know I was born, and I know that I'll die. But the in between is mine."<br>
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- Number of posts: current +1248</p><i></i>
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#3
That reminds me of the noble human shields who, upon their arrival in Iraq, discovered they were indeed going to be shielding valuable Iraqi targets such as bridges, power plants, and military palaces, decided they were no longer interested in the cause.<br>
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Having returned to the States and other comfortable refuges of free speech, most of the chastened shields proceeded to demonstrate that they had learned absolutely nothing useful from the experience, by continuing to argue passionately against the invasion of Iraq and de facto removal of Saddam Hussein, who would have happily gotten them killed for his sake as any Iraqi citizen.<br>
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It's so much safer and more pleasant to be a radical in the free West! (Ha, a free radical! ) You get to a) go home and b) watch your protest on the news that night. Boo evil America, boo mean Britain!<br>
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Cheers<br>
Jenny <p></p><i></i>
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
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#4
free radicals.<br>
<br>
So does that mean political conservatives are antioxidants?<br>
<br>
Wendy<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>
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#5
Naw, I don't know what conservatives are. Vegetables, maybe?<br>
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Hahaha, I crack myself up...<br>
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Cheers<br>
Jenny <p></p><i></i>
Cheers,
Jenny
Founder, Roman Army Talk and RomanArmy.com

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
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#6
"I've given up trying to figure out certain countries, and their people."<br>
<br>
Welcome to the Middle East, private Tiberius...<br>
Your stay will be one of innumerable puzzlements.<br>
I spent eight months in Lebanon in 1978 and I am strill trying to figure out several things..<br>
Never give up, man. There MUST be a logical reason...<br>
<br>
And a "human shield" type of story, but a "soft" version. This cute little french actress was one of the main persons in a protest type movement called DAL, the french acronym for "a right to a home". Those people demand no less that free homes be provided to all in need, including the illegal immigrants. And she was all over the TV at prime time, leading demonstrations and stuff.<br>
Then one day some mean, nasty paparazzi, specialized in hunting stars decided to play a trick on her. They gathered a family if illegal immigrants from Mali.<br>
A man, his two wives and their seven or eight children...<br>
And in that company the went knocking at the young actresse's door.<br>
Since she lived in a seven bedroom condo with two baths, AC, valet parking and swimming pool on the roof, they told her they figured that being such a militant and all that she was ready to sacrifice a bit of privacy to help..<br>
Guess what? She refused. Quite violently actually. She threatened to call the police and everything. And meanwhile of course, the camera was rolling, with the sound..<br>
Ever since we definitely see much less of her on the eight o'clock news, for some reason..<br>
Hee hee hee hee<br>
Amongts us elitistic journalist persons we call those guys "the rats".<br>
But by Jupiter, sometimes, I do love rats! <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=antoninuslucretius@romanarmytalk>Antoninus Lucretius</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://localhost:1094/Homesteads/_1750094854/files/Cesar_triste.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 8/14/03 10:40 pm<br></i>
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