Iran.

[quinara]

Like most people I've been reading a lot about the situation in Iran, but I've pretty much refrained from commenting on it, because I feel like it's important that the protesters are able to maintain their identity as Iranians, rather than becoming anything like a symbolic representation of Western democracy (through some weird system of co-opting that I can't really articulate).

But, anyway, why do I get the creeping sense of dread that this is not going to end well??

:(

Comments

[bruttimabuoni]

Yes. And yet somehow few people are paying attention. It's partly what

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Yes. And yet somehow few people are paying attention. It's partly what <user=gillo site=livejournal.com> nailed yesterday, about how many important things are being overlooked for the MJ memorial bonanza.

And I don't quite know how to say this either without raising justifiable hackles but it's also partly what you're alluding to I think that this issue is being seen over here in explicitly Western terms - we're told more about the importance of Twitter and YouTube than we ever hear about conditions and opinions in Iran; especially among the non-Westernised non-blogging communities who still make up a substantial majority. Yes, there's clearly a school of thought we're very comfortable with. But that doesn't make them the only voice we should hear, even if we disagree vehemently with many of the others.

I hope this is just an example of the old Cold War expel-74-Soviet-diplomats-just-because mentality. But I fear not.

[quinara]

Yes, there's clearly a school of thought we're very comfortable with. But that doesn't make them the only voice we should hear, even if we disagree vehemently with many of the others.

*nods* It's absolutely nothing more than an impression, but it does feel sometimes as if bloggers etc. think that the protesters want a non-theocratic USian clone government as much as they do - which I don't think Mousavi has ever had in mind. (Though I haven't read everything in the most detail, so I'd be happy to be corrected.)

After the whole diplomat-expelling thing I'm worried things are just going to escalate further.