If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been going on around you, then you’ll have noticed that things haven’t cooled down in Iran. I find it interesting how something like religious fanaticism, and martyrdom, two things that have been a huge thorn in our side during any of our multiple conflicts in the middle east, are actually working against the government of Iran. I have to laugh at it, really. The Iranian government has been cracking down on its people, and in the process it has killed a few. This creates and even larger feeling of discontent amongst the people and has made martyrs of the dead. Then the people gather in mass around the martyrs and carry them through the streets. This causes the government troops to crack down even harder, and the vicious circle builds.
After watching it happen to us about a few dozen times, I’m quick to realize the potential for ruin, for the government anyway. And I love it.
See, the problem that the Iranian government is having now is, that it is trying to re-implement some of its old hard-line policies through that nutjob of a leader Ahmadinejad. Unfortunately for them, they haven’t been paying attention, and most of their population has managed to become quite domestic and educated. The domestication creates a sense of complacency amongst the people, and causes them to quietly protest in their homes when the education in them says they should be rioting in the streets. Enter martyrdom. Where domestication fails the human spirit and causes people to stop protesting in the streets for fear of loosing what they have, martyrdom and religious fanaticism lights a fire under their ass. Its power so great, in fact, that once you get that ball rolling, it usually only has one of two outcomes. The first possibility is a complete and total blanket of oppression in the form of a police-state, which can lead to the creation of a dictatorship. The second is a possible revolution. Even if the revolution is political in nature, one based on martyrdom, can’t avoid bloodshed. Martyrdom equates (in my very limited knowledge) to shooting a tiger with a B-B Gun. The more you shoot him, the more pissed off he’s going to get.
Nothing touches the core of a soul more than a dead relative. It creates more rage than any oppressive policy, and draws more people into the streets. Then people start questioning the policy that created the situation in the first place. Kill one today, you’ll have to kill 10 tomorrow… etc… etc.
PS. And in staying with today’s theme.
Nice work Israel, you’ve become that which you hate most.