Discussion on Iran and Its Possible Revolution

This video has been shown to us "over and over and over and over again."

I am of the opinion that it should be. I am also of the opinion from my limited knowledge about Iran that these protests are at least the underpinnings of a progression toward a freer, if not Democratic state in Iran.

This is the response I got from a friend who disagreed. I'm posting it in hopes of getting a healthy skeptical and objective discussion going so I can learn more about this situation.

Here is his response to me sending out the video:

Phil:

over and over cnn showed it msnbc showed it cbc showed it bbc showed it. but consider the context. first of all we have no idea what side Neda (if that is her real name) was on. also each side is far right wing extremists. Mousavi was part of the original 1979 violent revolution that brought the extreme right wing religous clerics into power. i say to all those who support Mousauvi be careful what you wish for. He could be just as bad if not worse than the current regime. this is the country that trained the Hezboullah. this is the country that are jew haters, both sides, all sides. so when we get shown this hot video over and over and over and over and over and over again consider the source always. consider the context always. and consider who is spreading the propaganda always. this is one case where Obama is playing it right keeping the cards to the chest instead of the flabbergasing of Mcain and gang. even some republicans agree obama's keeping the gunpowder dry is the right path.

Phil

Neal (me):

I definitely read and considered your point.

However, it very much seems from other surrounding facts that no matter what the mixture of 'sides,' this is the natural progression into a Democratic, eventually consumer driven state.

Neda was a student, a philosophy student for one thing, which I don't know too many overly religious philosophy students, and if they are, they certainly aren't bent on traditionalism.

I also know the country is extremely religious, but they recently had a baby boom, with near 60% of the population being young. Its extremely similar to this country in the sixties--

baby boom + education + new media = revolution

For us it was the baby boom, university protesters, and Vietnam on the TV. For them its their own baby boom, students like Neda, and Twitter.

So no matter what the revolution is about or for, we can see how revolution is caused by environmental and media driven factors. I doubt, considering the nature of the media today (i.e. internet and all-pervasire telecommunications) that the youth are driven by religious/traditional and hence, centralist-insular convictions.

As for the Jews, like any other primarily coercive group, I'm not too sympathetic to begin with.

(Note, I am not an anti-semite, I just feel that like the Christians, the Jewish people are just another group vying for power by means of force, esp in Isreal, and hence are primarily unethical when considered as a group, not as individuals.)

Neal

Feel free to comment to start up a discussion: