Iran: The Orginial Dead Poet Society

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Iran: The Orginial Dead Poet Society
by Anonymous Observer
17-Nov-2011
 

Have you ever asked your good selves the question of ‘what have we accomplished in our glorious three thousand years (or more) of history?’  The answer seems to be a resounding ‘not much.’  Well, not much with the exception of poetry.  Yes, we love poetry.  It’s true.  Even Kahmenei’s nephew agrees.  He says as much in this BBC documentary about his beloved uncle.  He says that we, as Iranians, love poetry, and we all have a poetry book at home.  That’s true also.  I remember having one a couple at our home when I was growing up.  In my own home, I replaced them with a collection of dog training books.  Sorry, but they have more practical use.  My new puppy still hasn’t quite gotten the hang of peeing outside. 

So, let’s take a look back through our history and see what contributions we have made to the betterment of human race.  Did we discover any disease?  No!  How about medicine?  Discover any of those?  No!  Jet engine?  No!  Internal combustion engine?  No! Bicycle? No!  Aircraft?  No!  Helicopter?  No!  Space exploration?  No!  Discover any planets? No!  Electricity?  No!  Light bulb? No!  Computers? No! Plain paper for God’s sake? No! Discover any elements? No! Chemicals? No! Discover any wildlife or plants? No!  Any continents?  No! 

So, what the hell have we been doing for the past 3000 years?  Well, aside from discovering this great device, we sat on our asses and wrote poetry.  Lots and lots of poetry.  In fact, we are obsessed with poetry, and consider it the cornerstone of our notion of wisdom and culture, which is not really that bad of a thing if we didn’t devote our entire existence to it and ignored everything else around us.  We were (and still are) so obsessed with philosophy that we didn’t even have the curiosity to discover our very own civilization that we are so proud of.  Those evil, “barbarian” Europeans had to come in and tell us what our glorious past was about.  How ironic is that?  Poetry is so important to us that even the illiterate Khomeini jumped on the bandwagon and created a “divan.”  But we all have this mindset.  Just look at this site.  Half of the front page articles are poetry or poetry related material.

Aah, we also discovered irfan (no, not the Pakistani guy at your local kabab house).  It’s something akin to sitting on your ass, drinking wine, reading (or writing) poetry, if you’re Hafez, fantasizing about (or actually having) sex with little boys, and fooling yourself into believing that you have connected with the “divine.”  Khomeini was a big fan of irfan.   

Now some will surely jump in and claim that there are many Iranian scientists outside of Iran.  They don’t count.  A person who was either born here, came here as a young child, or went to college outside of Iran doesn’t count.  They belong to the country that provided them with the education and the opportunities, and most importantly, they belong to the society that gave them the cultural derive to get them where they are.  In other words, that society steered them away from poetry nights (shab-e-she’er) and reading Hafez, to actual curiosity about science and the world around them. 

The sad truth is that post Islam we have been infected with the mullah culture, which is an all consuming agenda that takes curiosity away from one’s mind and focuses the person’s entire existence on religion.  As a society, we know more about Hazrat-e Abbas’ horse than we know about our local fauna.  That’s a sad fact. 

Lastly, I have nothing against my good friends here on IC who write poetry and / or are poets.  I am criticizing the culture as a whole.  Picking on individuals is not productive.  And to show that I am also a product of this culture, I will recite a verse:

Miazar moori keh daneh kesh ast      keh jan darad va jan –e sheereen khosh ast

 

There!  See, I can recite poetry also! 

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Anonymous Observer

HG - Agree with all of your points

by Anonymous Observer on

I do not believe that genetics has anything to do with it at all.  All human beings are euqal genetically.  It's the environment that shapes us.  Interestingly, what's the ratio of science labs in Iranian schools versus the number of "imamzadehs" in the country?  

But forget about chemistry labs.  How about heaters for classrooms?  Look at what happened to this girl's face because of a lack of a safe heater in a Mazandaran classroom:

//www.mehrnews.com/fa/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=1453653

They finally splurged and put a safe heater in the classroom.  It was such an imprtant event that made the news--and that's in a country that floats on oil:

//www.mehrnews.com/fa/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1456614

Aren't you glad they spent the $50 million on that park in South Lebanon? 


Anonymous Observer

Mexicans do not claim greatness

by Anonymous Observer on

Like Iranians do.  We walk (and talk) arond this planet as we own it, or as if others owe us something just for being Iranian.  But our badndonment of scientific curiosity dose not support our delusions of grandeur.


Mohammad Ala

American PhD’s or Scientists have accent.

by Mohammad Ala on

Ao jan, we talked about this subject.  It seems that you find something and keep hitting us by 2by4 as people used to say in the USA.  Yesterday (November 16, 2011), you disrespected our poets, literature, etc. Our dead poets are NOT dead if people talk about them several hundred years later.  This is an important factor to remember.  Yesterday I gave you an example of how Persian poetry, literature and cinema are popular as far as Lima, Peru and Hanoi in Vietnam.  I was shocked that elementary students in Lima knew who Khayyam was.

Again, yesterday, I mentioned that an Iranian has invented several new ideas inside Iran but coming up with an idea and making it marketable are too different issues.  People in the West have tools to make ideas marketable.  Having taught in decent universities in many countries, I would rank American students’ talent in the bottom.  There is a humor and goes like this…. American PhD’s or Scientists have accent.


hamsade ghadimi

a.o., a few notes on your

by hamsade ghadimi on

a.o., a few notes on your blog:

1. right away, i was going to mention aftabeh; but i see that you beat me to it.

2. the reason iranians, in general, like poetry is because we have been invaded by many cultures (mongols, greeks, arabs, turks come to mind).  during many of these periods, either the official language (outside the home) was not persian or there were heavy restrictions in the use of persian.  therefore, we had to resort to oral tradition to keep the language alive. something like farenheit 451. a good contemporary book on this phenomenon is esmail fasih's "farar farvahar." 

3. i agree that the environment (nurture) has more influence on our accomplishments than our genetic makeup (nature).  did you have any chemistry classes in iran with laboratories?  unless you went to one of the few fancy schools in tehran, you probably didn't.  i didn't. so the more a society is closed, due to whatever ideology (religion, communism), the environment is not conducive to innovation.  regarding nature: i believe that all human are in essence equal and cannot be generalized by artificial means as national origin, race, religion, ...

4. in general, i hate to talk about what we've done or how great we were to make ourselves feel good.  i rather talk about what we're doing now.


anglophile

To criticise a culture is to criticise the nature

by anglophile on

No culture is deterministically created or evolved. To criticise a culture is like to criticise the skin colour of people. This [culture] is largely if not entirely a product of human responses to their natural and social surroundings. 


Anahid Hojjati

In defense of poetry

by Anahid Hojjati on

dear AO, you make poetry to be against science, and you show poet as some druggie or drunken person who is just reading poetry and writing poetry. This is not the truth of it.  Being a poet increases one's curiousity and makes the person to look at the world in a new way. You and other commentators in the same line of thinking such as JahanK write that  Iranians don't know about the plants and animals in their own country.

 As a poet, I tell you that now that I want to write poetry, I m more interested in all animals and plants. Until when can I write about Tulips and lilies in my poems? I am motivated to learn many more flowers and how they can be used in poetry. Same with animals. We all know dove is symbol of peace and owl is symbol of bad luck but what about other birds. I seriously need to know my birds and flowers.
Another great characteristic of poetry is that it teaches you. You have heard, read or personally experienced it that when you teach a subject, you learn it better. Same is true about poetry. Poertry and science are not mutually exclusives. I know engineers, doctors and scientists who write poetry. I have read how American CEOs written in priase of poetry.

Rather than negating the good we have which is Persian poetry, let's try to use it to our advantage. More people should write inspiring poems to do something about sorry state of affairs. 

Dear AO, We got the point that Iranians did not have that many discoveries but so what. Many other countries have not had either. For all our past glory, we are part of third world and scientific discoveries usually don't come from third world countries. Reasons are simple and explained by several people more than hundred and fifty years ago. I read it when I was fifteen.

Marxism books explained well how each country ends up doing what they are best at it and there are resources for it. So Iran has always been the best in poetry and that is what Iranians wil be gravitating to. You better accept it.


Cost-of-Progress

And Esfand jaaaaaan

by Cost-of-Progress on

Which one of the three greats you referred to are considered Iranian in the Western texts?

NONE!

They are all known (known may be too much of a stretch) and referred to as "muslim scholars".

____________

IRAN FIRST

____________


Esfand Aashena

Does every society has to invent something?!

by Esfand Aashena on

What's this contest about finding out what Iranians have or have not invented?  Or if invented it HAS to be in Iran otherwise it don't count?!  I wonder what Mexicans invented!

Well as for Iran as Forrest Gump would say, I am not smart but I know what smart is!

Three Iranians that come to my mind, in the past 3 thousands years are:

Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi who found alchohol!  Alchohol buddy, as in Bud Light!  Not to mention being an astronomer, chemist, physician and other stuff. 

Omar Khayyám who discovered Algebra or solving cubic equations and bunch of other stuff that you can read for yourself.

Ibn Sīnā who discovered book of medicine and again bunch of other stuff which I don't feel like copying!

I think some other Iranian Javad invented solar calendar which we are all using!  But in the end you are right Iranians are just bunch of nana-nana-na-nah!  Cry babys one way or another! 

Everything is sacred