Reply To: T-shirt designers unite and take over

[Rezwan]

Hi Duke,

You realize you’re asking me to analyze the present, as if being on the ground gives me better perspective, and to then project the future. These things are beyond my abilities. I disclaim this at length in my blog: http://www.planiran.com/index.php/site/article/unpredictable/

And I twitter, too. http://twitter.com/planiran

I teach at the university here in Shiraz, innocuous things like English language and environmental science for planners. Still trying to forumulate a strategy to bring about something constructive like an effective civil rights movement out of all this, without being labeled a zionist american spy (I’m 1/2 American, and Mom’s born again, so, clearly, if arrested, the case is slam dunk). Although, for the record, I am not a zionist american spy.

I am a human being.

But I don’t think it’s people with guns vs. without. There are guns all around here. Thriving black market. This is Iran! Be real! The caution comes more from what Khamenei warned about in his Friday sermon. “Take a look at our neighbors and all their chaos.” That was a “bad cop” reminder. e.g., if these young upstarts try to destabilize the regime, they won’t be able to establish anything stable in its place. Because a lot of people feel very strongly on all sides. (And the crowd at the prayers went wild! Chanting the litany that includes death to america, death to israel. Death, death, death.)

This country needs to hold together. And it (especially the govt., but also people in general) needs to develop the skill and discipline to have civil conversations (dude, “death to…????”). As it is, things are very reactionary, and developing this aptitude will take some…miracle.

Six impossible things before breakfast. No problem.