Posted to Half Sigma. I expect he'll approve it, I think he's approved all my comments:
"Iran seems technocratic to me in a way that the Taliban are not (and were not when they were a sovereign government). 12th Imam stuff seems as straussian as bringing on revelations is in the USA. I think that type stuff is used to encourage populations to be irrationally hard bargainers (which can be a rational strategy by elites or even for that entire population, usually not for the welfare of the entire system, but for the relative welfare of competing subpopulations within that system)."
I mostly agree, but the 12th imam stuff is not really approved of by the Supreme Leader. He arrested some of Ahmadenijad's friends under accusations of sorcery. Of course that was part of a larger behind the scenes conflict, but still that viewpoint is not pushed by the larger powers that be.
ReplyDeleteH.A's comment appears at Half Sigma's here.
I thought this was a deep perception for someone writing from North America.
ReplyDeleteThe best way for a North American with radical futurist leanings to understand a society like Iran might be to think of it like a corny alien civilization such as you would see on Star Trek. They have their nuclear power and their space program and their robotics program, and they also have their odd alien religion and culture.
I think the Larijani brothers may represent the truly technocratic faction in Iranian politics. Ahmadinejad's group are more ideological.