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Persian Paranoia

[Slate] Christopher Hitchens - One of the signs of Iran's underdevelopment is the culture of rumor and paranoia that attributes all ills to the manipulation of various demons and satans. But you have no idea how deep is the primitive belief that it is the British - more than the CIA, more even than the Jews - who are the puppet masters of everything that happens in Iran. The best-known and best-selling satirical novel in the Persian language is My Uncle Napoleon, by Iraj Pezeshkzad, which describes a family member who subscribes to the "Brit Plot" theory of Iranian history. At last Friday's prayers, as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei viciously slammed the door on all possibilities of reform, he droned, "The most evil of them all is the British government." These ravings have real-world consequences. There is nothing at all that any Western country can do to avoid the charge of intervening in Iran's foreign affairs. The deep belief that everything - especially anything in English - is by definition an intervention is part of the very identity and ideology of the theocracy. It is a mistake to assume that the ayatollahs are acting rationally. They are frequently in the grip of archaic beliefs and fears. There is then the larger question of the Iranian theocracy and its continual, arrogant intervention in our affairs: its export of violence and cruelty and lies to Lebanon and Palestine and Iraq and its unashamed defiance of the UN, the EU, and the IAEA on nuclear weapons. Coexistence with a nuclearized, fascistic theocracy in Iran is impossible even in the short run.
2009-06-24 06:00:00
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