Calligraphy: Daryoush Mohammad Poor
It is now pretty established that the most dominant voice on the social media belongs to an increasingly visible faction of the supports of monarchy restoration. They most prominent quality is vulgarity in language, speech, behaviour and actions. These are all abundantly recored in voice and video. The major line of defence among the monarchist camp has been to pin all of these on infiltrators of the Islamic Republic, which does not hold much water given the significant role of the official advisors and aides of this camp.
I have argued before that this is only a part – probably a small but most vocal part – of Iranian society. There is a grey area most people do not see. The segments of society in those grey areas need to find one another. They are like drops that once they join, the will form a raging river of ideas and solidarity in contradistinction with the exlusivist voices characterised by vulgarity.
There is another point to be observed from a civilisational perspective. Since the 1905 Constitutional Revolution in Iran to put limits on temporal power of monarchy – and every political ruler in effect – Iran has come a steady but slow way forward. Yet, some issues remain nagging and persisten. The malaise of aggressive language and mentality of eliminating the other has remained potent not just in Iran but globally.
What we see today could very well be a sort of katharsis for the Iranian society. The society is throwing up all the indigestable food it has taken in over centuries. Imagine a drunk person who is throwing up on the side walk. They mess themselves up but there will be a relief coming afterwards. The Iranian society is going through moments not too dissimlar to this allegory. It is throwing up those nasty habits in full display before the eyes of the entire world. People – sane people – in the western world watch with bewilderment how one can seek freedom for Iran under the banner of Israel but this is precisely why this is happening: to get rid of that mental issue with loving one enemy for the sake of hating another one more. The ultimate result is not getting ride of one enemy but doing deeper down the vortex of hatred and resentment. If this is not a katharsis then, an it is a much more deeply rooted shift – which has precedents in human history – then not just Iranians but the entire world needs to be seriously concerned. It is the future of the next generations of human beings which is at stake here.
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