[A-List] Revolution and a Paranoid Style of Politics

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Revolution tends to give rise to a paranoid style, for revolution,
dividing the county, makes it actually vulnerable to foreign powers
who seek to gain or regain control over it by backing this or that
political, ethnic, and/or religious faction.  All revolutions
experienced a paranoid fear of "fifth columnists" in league with their
foreign masters at one time or another.

The political culture of Iran, moreover, tended to a paranoid style,
due to Iran's history of having been really subjected to foreign
powers hatching coup d'etats and other neo-colonial plots and being
truly menaced by not only America but also Russia at the same time.

That is why it is necessary but difficult to combat the paranoid
style.  Many people, across the political spectrum, tend to have
trouble distinguishing real from imaginary plots, especially since
secrecy naturally surrounds any actual plots and rumors fly fast and
furious in a time of trouble.

Typical victims of a paranoid style of politics tend to be those who
are in the middle -- ethnic or religious minorities who are culturally
marginalized but nonetheless come to thrive in certain economic
niches.  Read the description of the social composition of the upper
class in Iran on the eve of the Islamic Revolution by Ervand
Abrahamian (Iran between Two Revolutions, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1982, p. 432).

     The Upper Class. Totaling no more than one thousand
     individuals, the class consisted of six groups: a. the
     Pahlevi family with its 63 princes, princesses, and cousins;
     b. aristocratic families that had turned their interests to
     urban ventures long before the land reform of the 1960s --
     aristocratic families such as the Aminis, 'Alams, Bayats,
     Qaragozlus, Davalus, Moqadams, and Jehanbanis; c.
     enterprising aristocrats, such as Khodadad
     Farmanfarmaian, Amir Timourtash, Mehdi Busheri, and
     Nouri Isfandiari, who survived land reform by setting up
     agro-businesses, banks, trading companies, and industrial
     firms; d. some 200 elder politicians, senior civil servants,
     and high-ranking military officers who prospered by sitting
     on managerial boards and facilitating lucrative government
     contracts; e. old-time entrepreneurs who made their first
     million during the commercial boom of World War II and
     went on to make additional millions during the oil boom of
     the 1960s and 1970s -- prominent among them were
     Mehdi Namazi, Habib Sabeti, Qassem Lajevardi, Habib
     Elqanian, Rasul Vahabzadeh, Hassan Herati, Assadallah
     Rashidian, Muhammad Khosrowshahi, Ja'far Akhavan,
     and Abul Fazel Lak; f. a half-dozen new entrepreneurs,
     notably Ahmad Khiami, Mahmud Rezai, Hojaber Yazdani,
     and Morad Arya, who built vast business empires during the
     late 1960s mainly because of their personal contacts with
     the royal family, the old entrepreneurs, and the multinational
     corporations.

     These wealthy families owned not only many of the large
     commercial farms, but also some 85 percent of the major
     private firms involved in banking, manufacturing, foreign
     trade, insurance, and urban construction.17 Although the
     vast majority of the upper class was Muslim, some senior
     officials had joined the court-connected Freemason Lodge
     in Tehran, and a few -- notably Yazdani, Elqanian, and
     Arya -- came from Baha'i and Jewish backgrounds. This
     provided fuel for rumors often heard in the bazaars that
     the whole upper class represented an international
     conspiracy hatched by Zionists, Baha'is centered in Haifa,
     and British imperialists through the Freemason Lodge
     in London.

If Jews did not suffer as much as Baha'is before or after Iran's
Islamic Revolution, that is because Islam recognizes Jews as among the
people of the book, and so does Iran's constitution that was
established through the revolution.  Whatever Iran's Muslims thought
of Israel and Zionism, or Khomeini's occasionally anti-Semitic
rhetoric, there was no question in their mind that Judaism is a
religion and Iran's Jews have ancient roots in the country.  Moreover,
those Iranians who know history are very proud of Cyrus, King of
Persia,* who conquered Babylon and liberated Jews from captivity.  The
Baha'i faith, in contrast, was regarded more as a political cult than
as religion by many Iranians (not unlike the way many Germans view
Scientology and many Chinese think of Falun Gong).

* <http://www.bartleby.com/108/15/1.html#S1>
* The Proclamation of Cyrus
2 Chr. 36.22, 23
1 	Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the
LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, Jer. 25.11 ; 29.10
the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a
proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing,
saying,
2 	¶ Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath
given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to
build him a house at Jerusalem, Is. 44.28 which is in Judah.
3 	Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and
let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of
the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.
4 	And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the
men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods,
and with beasts, besides the freewill offering for the house of God
that is in Jerusalem.

-- 
Yoshie