Rather than respond further than I have done to date to the ad hominem diatribe written against me by a fellow contributor to this website hiding behind Her / (Or His ?) self righteous boldness of anonymity and endorsed by other anonymous likemids including a "mad one" I'd rather for what it's worth let a far more "talented" writer respond for me.
If the following article applies to a different geographical, social, political and historical context maybe ... but it remains nevertheless eternally topical !
I hereby approve and take as mine every word and assessment in the following opinion piece by a certain Tom Moore except for the Word "Revolution" which in my book should be replaced by the "R-Word" which can invariably mean "Regime Change" and or "Restoration" ! ...
Cause before lecturing me on how YOUR Revolution (Not so Secular if we are to believe the poll ) was "highjacked" ... might as well look in the mirror and explain to us as well as to your genders today how your Jomhurykhah Peers and allies of yesterday and today Highjacked ours :
pictory: The Shah's White Revolution (1960's)
WOMEN GET TO VOTE: Female Crowd Gratefully Gather At Shah's Palace (1963)
Only to reinstate the previous status quo:
pictory: Stoning a Woman For Adultery During Qajar Era Depicted in Painting
Best,
Darius Kadivar
Freelance journalist and media consultant
and Blogger / Feature Writer for a former website from August 28th, 2000 to December 5th 2012:
http://iranian.com/main/member/darius-kadivar.html
http://iranian.com/dkadivar.html
May 10th, 2014 Paris, France
**********
*******
***
*
In Defense of Hypocrisy by Tom Moore (Hufifngton Post)
Two weeks ago, in response to a column I wrote about walking barefoot as a revolutionary act, a reader made this comment on The Sun website:
"As someone who grew up in a developing country, I find this article to be extremely naïve and ill-advised, written by a privileged boy from a well-to-do family who has white-guilt about his family's financial comfort."
The reader is absolutely right, but doesn't go far enough. I'm not just a privileged boy from a well-to-do family; I'm also a heterosexual, an American and, perhaps worst of all, a consumer. I own a cell phone, a laptop and endless other bits of plastic crap which we, as a society, have convinced each other we need.
"White-guilt" doesn't begin to cover what I have. As a wealthy, straight, white, male American consumer, my lifestyle is built upon violence against humanity and violence against the earth. The violence of my privilege is the fundamental premise upon which my political and social consciousness is built. If you don't accept this premise, nothing I write will make much sense to you.
So if I am, in fact, the oppressor, what business do I have writing an opinion column? Do we really need more input from the patriarchy? Doesn't the voice of the oppressor already fill the room every time a black child is killed without consequences, every time a 12-year-old Chinese girl works herself to death to assemble the toys I think I need, every time the American Empire kicks over a sovereign nation in my name?
How do I justify driving my Prius from Cornell University to New York City so that I can march down a street and chant, "We are the 99 percent"? Every time the word "revolution" passes my white lips, the words of the late, great Gil Scott-Heron come to mind:
The irony of it all, of course, is when a pale-faced SDS [Students for a Democratic Society] motherfucker dares look hurt when I tell him to go find his own revolution... Your great-grandfather tied a ball and chain to my balls and bounced me through a cotton field, while I lived in an unflushable toilet bowl, and now you want me to help you overthrow what?
As a white activist, I get this a lot. What does a white liberal weekend revolutionary know about police brutality? What gives me the cultural authority to quote the poetry of Gil Scott-Heron? And who the hell do I think I am?
Well, I'm me. I don't really have any other options. I was born with this skin color, with this ancestry, with this gender, with this trust fund. Whatever objections I may have to consumerism, I was born into this economy. However abhorrent I may find war, I was born into the country with all the guns, and the belligerence to use them.
So, I'm me, and injustice is injustice. I can't change the circumstances of my birth. I can't go back in time and convince my ancestors not to keep slaves or steal Native American land. I can't snap my fingers and rid the world of racism, sexism and heteronormativity. I can't single-handedly stop industrial capitalism from raping the planet to death. I wish I could, but I can't.
Here's what I can do:
1) I can shut up. I can accept that the color of my skin and the depth of my pockets make me ineligible to even utter the word "oppression." I can spend my life playing backgammon and trying to drown my white guilt in tea and crumpets. I can leave reform and revolution to those "culturally authorized" to fix the world.
2) I can keep talking. I can accept accusations that I "don't get it," because in some ways I probably don't. I can try my best, given my limited and problematic perspective, to point out and fight against injustice whenever and wherever I see it, and to stand in solidarity with those whose struggles I perceive as righteous.
As an oppressor with a conscience, I am confronted with a choice between silence and what some would call hypocrisy. I'll choose hypocrisy every time.
If you want to disregard what I say because of the color of my skin, the social class of my parents and the atrocities of my great-grandparents, that's your prerogative. I don't have the authority or the desire to ask anyone to ignore the violence of my privilege. Telling me to shut up is thus absolutely legitimate.
That being said, when I see something I think is wrong, I'm going to make as much noise about it as possible, even at the risk of sounding "naive and ill-advised." If this makes me a hypocrite, so be it. After all, plenty of white liberals participated in the Civil Rights Movement, and despite Gil Scott-Heron's completely legitimate accusations of hypocrisy, I think the white liberals helped the Movement considerably. It was, in part, their privilege, rooted in a racist system, which empowered them to battle the forces of racism.
Similarly, privilege grants me access to education. If we don't use the tools that education gives us to look outside of our own privilege bubbles, then higher education is a criminal misallocation of society's resources and an inexcusable circle-jerk. For better or for worse, privilege grants me a louder voice than most. I'm going to use that voice to cry bloody murder whenever I get the chance, especially when the blood is on my own hands.
Tom Moore is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Stop it. You are only sinking yourself in the mess of your own creatu=ion. cant you se it? I mean exactly , what did you or your beloved "empress farah pahlavi did yesterday mr Kadivar, except for moaning and complaining about what Miss namazi did in her opposition to compulsary hijab and islamist regime, in your typical 3 page blog full of irrelevant links ?
If you dont like her actions, fine. Just get off your ass, and do something.
p.s. At least you use your own real name. afarin! The rest of "anti namazi" gang, do not even have the balls to use their own names!
Dear Darius you have my support, then you are a true patriot
hamal joon,
Can't expect much from you but the Empress did bring credit to the name of the Iranian woman, unlike Mary Namazie who has done precisely what Ali Khamenei wants his opposition to do. Too much load bearing has taken its toll on you :))
Great blog Darius jaan.
I can't believe what I'm reading. Aren't you two ( Mr Kadivar and Mr. Anglo_parast a/k/a westernized toodeh ee) the same ones who were bashing Mandela just a few weeks ago and refused to answer a simple question and now taking refuge under above article that is completely in conflict with your stinking to high heavens racist ideas as a justification? Shame, shame......
Bravo hamal and kamalFM,
I could not agree with either one of you Gents. more. Meanwhile you have to realize that we are dealing with a bunch of irrational, defeated characters like the Shahollahi/Hezbollah! This CULT prefers living in the world of fantasy, and have lost touch with reality! These members of the Pahlavi Criminal Enterprise, and their paid pimping hustelers, are having a field day spending the embezzeled money, and not give a CRAP as to the reality that surrounds them!
Funny thing is that they call this broad, Farah, "empress", yet the empire is "hidden" and unidentified!!!
Is that you DK in the family picture? He looks like the karate figther in Enter the Dragon film, his name is John Saxon, the American with a lot of suit cases!!! Mind you he had more muscle than you but you look a bit better. LOL
PJ, calm dow!. I dont consider darius kadivar a "criminal" by any means. I just happn to disgree with him on this. In fact I respect Darius for being open about his identity. He is what he is. He is not a fake. Sadly, I can not say the same about "anglophile" :)
I have a lot of respect for Darius as well but cannot ignore hints of very subtle racism that I have witnessed throughout the years in his writtings.
God Bless you DK for putting the members of Iranian Taliban on their place!
What would you say if I told you that M. Namazzie gets paid by the IRI to go nude on the streets?
Just like her Taliban brothers on this site, Namazzi gets paid by IRI to divide and conqure the already fractured Iranian communities here and there!
Javid Shah!
I_C_W, what I'm about to write is not meant as being cute or witty. As a human to another human I'm sincerely worried about your mental well being. Please ask for help before it is too late.