Iran's pro-government rallies fool nobody
CNN / Hamid Dabashi
08-Jan-2010 (one comment)

(CNN) -- The Ahmadinejad government responded to the courageous anti-government protests throughout Iran in December by cranking up its propaganda machine to stage pro-government rallies. But that tactic won't work.

The transparently staged events are the surest sign of the regime's insecurity and its awareness that it must manufacture the illusion of legitimacy.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, abusing the financial resources that belong to Iranian people, put together the spectacle on December 30, calling it a "spontaneous" show of support for the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic.

Some people who saw this clumsily engineered carnival might be led to believe that Ahmadinejad's government, and by extension the Islamic Republic that he represents, is widely popular -- and that the Green Movement demanding civil liberties represents a small minority of Iranians. It does not.

Soon after the Islamic revolution of 1977-1979 in Iran, my colleague Peter Chelkowski and I began collecting an extensive archive of visual materials -- ranging from posters, graffiti, murals, elementary school textbooks, billboards, and even stamps, banknotes and chewing gum wrappers -- that were effectively used to turn a multifaceted cosmopolitan revolution into an exclusively "Islamic" one.

It took us more than a decade to collect our archive and publish "Staging a Revolution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic Republic," in which we demonstrated how the custodi... >>>

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farokh2000

Good point

by farokh2000 on Fri Jan 08, 2010 01:30 PM PST

Yes, the Mullahs have learned from CIA people who did the same thing in 1953 to get Mossadegh out.

CIA had given out tons of money to the masses to go out there and demonstrate against Mossadegh. They also bribed the Army leaders for the same goal.

The Mullahs were brought in by CIA. Khomieni had been protected in safe houses in Iraq and France for about 30 years before Shah's usefulness to them expired in mid 70's.

We all know what happened next, of course. Deception, murder and dictatorship at a level never seen before in Iran.

Yes, they are masters at this game and it would be very hard to dislodge them from their seats. They will kill much more if they have to, no question.

Nice piece. Thanks.


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