I take it the Iranians are tired of Theocracy

Elections were held in Iran yesterday. Anyone who dares think for a moment that they were anything like fair is living in a fantasy world. It's a dictatorship run by a bunch of priests. To paraphrase Stalin, "It isn't who votes or how that is important, what is important is who counts the votes and how."

So of course the elections aren't fair. They don't have a free press, or any sort of oversight over what their government does. And if you've seen the pictures, some people are obviously pretty fed up with it. I dare say, a whole lot of Iranians are pissed. People are the same everywhere and tend to want the same things. The Iranian people want to be free to live without interference from their government, without fear of being "disappeared" in the middle of the night, without fear of being executed as a traitor for merely speaking their mind. These are the same things that everyone wants. Very few want to live in a theocratic dictatorship. The ones who wind up doing so, do so against their will and tolerate it out of fear. Out of fear of punishment from "god" and/or fear of what the earthly leaders of their country might do to them. The only people who want to live in such a place, are those who are in power, who benefit from it, the dictator and maybe his close comrades.

The question of where this civil unrest will lead depends on whether or not the Iranians who are so furious, are willing to die to free themselves. That's what it boils down to. If they're not willing to go to jail, if they're not willing to risk being tortured and killed, if they just go home, then they will continue to live in a theocracy. Because what they face if they refuse to go home and shut up, is death. It also depends on how cohesive the movement is. The Revolutionary Guard has said it will put down any uprising, and indeed I hope that Mousavi goes somewhere safe because he's in grave danger. The government will probably accuse him of fostering this whole thing and we know where that kind of stuff leads in situations like this.

It's really too bad that Iran's government is so backwards. I've always been fascinated by the place. One of the greatest empires in history was there, the Persian Empire. I love archaeology and would love to see Persepolis. I think it would be a great place to visit, but I'm not likely to set foot there so long as things remain the way they are. I'm sure the people are lovely, but I don't go for theocracies.

Same shit, different day.