Masopher's Mind

Masopher has remained rather quiet lately. Mostly because he is busy but partly due to shame. Masopher watched ancient Persia as it grew in status and declined into a comfortable but backward state of religiousness. He applauded the revolution in 1979 and watched with fascination the spiral of influence that moment induced globally. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan; these nightmares are almost a direct result of regional and global reactions to 1979.
The recent elections were an opportunity for Iran to prove 2 things, one that they did in fact have democratic processes and two, that these processes were accepted by ALL Iranians as the only method by which governmental power is transfered or retained. Somewhere along the way Iranians forgot that others were watching with a certain amount of schadenfreude. Could it have been spies and sabateurs? Spies and sabateurs were most certainly there. Israel puts them there and the US congress bankrolls it unashamedly. Among all the reporters flocking there from real to fake news (the daily show on comedy central) to just plain fake it is was inevitable that there were many there that were identifying areas of opportunity and disruption. But no amount of spies and cyber campaigns can artificially create the general feeling of disappointment and betrayal that Iranian moderates feel. Was the vote stolen? Elections get slanted regularly, in many countries. Not least of all the US in 2000 or even the 2008 “fair” elections where the winning candidate spent 10 times the amount of the loser. Iran usually “votes” at the will of the Ayatolla anyway and Khameni clearly favored Ahmedinejad. But an overwhelming amount of independent polls predicted a large Ahmedinejhad victory exactly as it turned out.
It is shameful that Iran could not excercise peaceful Muslim republicanism. The three words should not be strangers.
Stolen or not Iranians showed the world that they are still more than willing to tear down anything that they disbelieve, even themselves. They tore the Shah down in 79′ and they tore down the US Iraqi invasion in 2005-07; they tore down Teran and their fellow countrymen who voted conservatively in 2009 and they will tear down any government that fails to pacify them, secular religious or otherwise.
It is also shameful that despite all the good intentions of moderates and progressives they will still couch their words to please the extreemists and that obvious anti-Iranian smear campaigns will be used to renew schisms further delaying the peace process. Hardliners in Jerusalem Washington and Teran benefit from continued estrangement as an excuse to continue the ongoing military standoff between the three countries.
It is a shame that even when there are so many people wanting to do right the few that want to do wrong are still getting thier way even when it is to the detriment and delay of progress.