“Mullocracy” = Dictatorship of the Mullahs. Aka Dictatorship of the Ayatollahs. Aka Theocracy. Aks Iran.
Which Iran has been since 1979. And which so many Iranians have come to hate. And now bravely say so. As in the video above.
Unlike the faux “bravery” of a Greta Thunberg in the west. Who is performative in her “resistance”, who “speaks truth to power”, is “bravely” arrested, and out of jail before the day has ended, in Iran, women who resist, who break the law by going into public with hair uncovered risk jail, rape and death. To resist the Iranian regime is the real bravery. Western women defying cops in western cities are performative.
Do not forget: this regime in Iran is the one who came to power in 1979, via revolution fomented by leftist allies. The Mullah regime, the Islamic theocracy then repaid their allies by executing over 30,000 of them.
Zero good has come out of the Mullocracy since 1979. Only oppression and terrorism. Terrorism exported to allies and proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen…. Even in South America where they fund nasty regimes like Maduro’s Venezuela.
If it’s true that the Iranian demonstrators are out in force this time because “enough is enough”, that’s a good thing. But I’ve seen reports that counter the one in the video above, that claim today’s demonstrations are like the demonstrations during Obama — unsupported by Obama — which failed to overturn the Theocracy, perhaps precisely because of that lack of American and western support.
This time Washington has come out in support of regime change. Good.
I drove through a lot of Iran in 1974. I was in a clapped-out Ford Anglia, on the way from London to New Delhi, with girlfriend and another couple. In Iran, we visited old friends, Aussies, teaching in Isfahan. We met their students. Lovely, open, friendly people. Society was open. The Shah was in charge. He a moderate, liberal, pushing for open education, women’s rights, housing reform… all kinds of nice stuff. Stuff the Left loves! But the Shah had secret police, the Savak, notoriously violent. And so, to the liberal west this was a Bad Man. He had to go.
This case is just one of many that reminds me of Thomas Sowell’s famous quote:
“There are no solutions; only trade offs”.
People made the mistake of assuming the Ayatollah, the Mullahs, the Islamists, the Theocracy was a Solution. Had they thought it was a matter of Trade Off, we’d rather have an open minded, secular -Shah, even with his dreaded Savak, than an oppressive, dictatorial Islamist theocracy. It’s not a matter of hindsight either. Plenty of people warned about this at the time. But President Jimmy Carter, that achingly liberal incompetent, preferred Ayatollah Khomeini. Because, you know, you’d rather have an anti-west Theocracy than a pro-west Shah who had secret police.
Of such quirks is world history made.
Now, nearly 50 years later, it may be time for history to turn again. Inshallah….
ADDED: How do I feel overall? About the demonstrations in Iran? Pessimistic. I doubt the unarmed populace will be able to topple the theocrats, protected as they are by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps — the much-worse-than-Savak armed police who protect the regime. I hope I’m wrong.
If you are convinced you have “Solutions”, you can get yourself into real trouble. That’s the key problem with communism, with socialism. People keep on thinking they’re Solutions. Whereas they are almost always worse than the “bad” situation they replace.
Much safer to consider if what you’re facing, the problem you want to solve, may be one of “Trade Offs”. Where there are choices, often between bad and worse. Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 was one much. A matter of people supporting a worse outcome because it was seen as a Solution to a “bad” situation.
