It is in the “We”
Oct 30th, 2008 by pedestrian
I am not an American and I do not live in the U.S. and, god willing, never will.
But so much of the vibe coming out of that country reminds me of what I was feeling living as 16 year old in Iran and watching Khatami’s run for presidency in 1997.
I find that Iranian and American politics have a lot more in common than we give them credit for or would like to admit – being two of the only places in the world where the words “socialist” and “liberal” are next to death. Places where “the constitution” – written by a group of irrelevant dead people – is holy grail: the secret weapon. As soon as you say anything the leadership does not like they will either brand you a “liberal” or claim that your words are against the
”founding fathers”.
Yes, the “founding fathers” they are referring to may have been leagues different in style, wisdom and legacy but they have nonetheless becomes weapons which we use to destroy all potential opponents.
And yet, there are times in a people’s history where physical laws of time and space no longer apply. There are times when the collective wisdom of a people seems to rise above what it was just days or even hours before. There are times when we decide as a nation that we will hope, we will want, we will attempt to do things differently.
HOPE is such a powerful thing. and I find that despite the fear and chaos on which this world is built, despite the greed and conceit that keeps it going, it is exactly these rare, unlikely moments that really keep us not just living, but alive. It is these moments that remind us of our humanity, our humility and of all that could be possible.
It is moments like this that remind us of what we truly are – or what we could become. The possibilities are endless and beautiful. And for a moment, we dare to dream.
I remember writing then as a 16 year old:
“With or without that piece of paper with my handwriting on it – with or without my vote – everything would go just the way it was supposed to go. But my vote was important to me, because it was the only voice I had in the Islamic Republic.
It wasn’t even much of a voice. All the candidates I would have wished to vote for had already been disqualified. Many of them might not have even bothered to enter the race knowing of its outcome. And who really knows who they could have been? With a simple gesture of the pen, another Mossadegh might have been crossed out, another Amir Kabir.
But my vote was a voice nevertheless, a whisper. And that’s all I have.
Will the next generation look down at me with anger and frustration? Will I never be asked why I didn’t at least try? The thought of that just makes me shudder. All I can do is hope that if I don’t possess the power to build, I will not give myself the right to corrupt. But that is something that only time will tell.
I had decided not to have anything to do with the chaos that is around me now, not to give anyone in this country the right to say that I and the likes of me were HIS supporters. So when I find myself searching for my shenaasnaame (ID) and sheepishly ask my mother to hand it over to me, I’m not the only one who is surprised.
Finally it’s my turn. I write down the five-letter name in Persian and walk outside, knowing that tomorrow morning, the official leaders of the Islamic Republic will overlook everything our votes represent. They’ll rave about how the number of votes show the degree of our loyalty, our love for what they have been doing. They’ll overlook the fact that 75% of those votes were not a Yes to Khatami, but a No to his opponents.
So why should I vote? Because by doing so, I can hope that I will be the one who gets the last laugh.
There are those who call Khatami a faker, a fanatic who can only smile and mischievously make promises he doesn’t intend to keep. A person who bears no difference from all the other people in charge. Someone who by tomorrow will forget all the reasons people voted for him. I will not argue their point. But just ask a simple question: What else was anyone to do? What other way exists for a better future that will not be followed by more killings and ruined lives? This vote was not for a person, but a path.
I put my vote in the box, not because I like Khatami, not because I want another mullah as my president, but just for the simple reason that no matter how small and impossible this dream may be, even though I can’t see how or why it may happen, I can hope and pray that now, my country’s freedom will not – as some claim – have to wait for guns and grenades.
Maybe — just maybe — this time around, the ballot box will be enough.”
But what I realize now is that my one vote wasn’t enough. It is not the day of the elections, but the day after that makes all the difference. Political systems all around the world are built on mass manipulation and mass deceit and we can not expect them to function any other way. We are wrong and naïve to even hope that they will function any other way. We can not expect one man to alter a system that is as old as time itself and as powerful.
In fact, it is not in that one man that our hope should lie – but the collective wisdom we have been able to achieve as people. That is what we forget the day after the elections, and that has been our greatest defeat every single time.
It is not in he that change will come; but in the we. Far after the banners have been brought down and the infomercials and celebrity endorsements forgotten, far after the winners and losers have been declared … Long after promises have been made and broken … Where are we?
It is not in the oval office or Sad-Abad, but the empty campaign grounds where we once enthusiastically stood, bursting with life and promise … that the death of hope enacts itself … over and over and over again.
WOW!
I agree, it is in the “we” that the change lies. Not in the HE/HER.
I have never cast a single vote in my life, and dont see my self doing that ever. ( I just voted once, in my high school for the school’s council and that was for my opponent, but some how still won by a landslide majority
)
I believe that no system ever created (or even so called ‘given’) is perfect, and so each n every single system (of life, living or government) has a lot of room for improvment. Only recently I have decided to write about it, but to be more effective I am still in the process of the essential reading. Experimenting with the revolutions, the ideas behind them, and the aftermaths, I am some what scared of them in general. To the point where I am even afraid of writing something, what if some lunatic reads it and makes something else out of it. But I think I will write, talk and experiment.
Lets see what the Americans decide today for the rest of the world!
Thank you Esfand for stopping by!
I have always voted in the Iranian elections – when I became of age, and when distance has not been an issue. In fact, as “dictatorial” as our system is, I think that is where your vote REALLY makes a difference. That is, that is where your day to day living conditions vary drastically depending on who is in parliament and presidential office.
I find that quite bizarre, but it’s true! I should know!
You should start writing! I’ll be looking forward to reading
… It is in experimenting i think that we find our niche … and come closer and closer to understanding how the world really works.
Yes, we shall see!
Great blog. Will add to my own blogroll immediately…
Thank you Sadegh Kabeer
Same here!
Pedestrian, how did you vote during Ahmadinejad/Hashemi election? Forgive my nosiness; I am just nosily very curious.
I agree with you that the votes in Iran are important, even if the vote is a spoiled ballot. To just go t the box and spoil a vote means “I exist”, “come get my attention and my vote next time.”
It remains remarkable, that after Khatami Phenomenon, the “woman vote” constituted an important enough platform that every single fundamentalist was running on it; being more zealous than other in promising to women!
The revolution in Iran’s democracy, in my opinion, started with “the city council” elections. It is then that the vote “counted” in the daily life of the citizen. It is a matter of getting used to the idea that to just express that “I exist, grab my vote” will mold the most tyranical of the tyrants into something more representative.
Now, this, in a country where Sarah Palin becomes popular is FRIGHTENING; and therein lies the greatest danger of democracy: The dumbing down of the politics!
Very easy: I was in Iran
This coming year, I will drive to Ottawa to vote though.
You are SO incredibly right Naj! The revolution in Iran’s democracy, in my opinion, started with “the city council” elections.
And I think this links to your last point about “dumbing down of politics”. Because it was exactly in the city councils that a man by the name of Ahmadinejad got elected to be mayor of Tehran … and we all know the story from there. I was in Iran at the time of the city council elections, and I remember that unlike the first round, hardly anybody got out to vote. The conservative vote in Tehran has always been around 800,000 … and they ALWAYS go out to vote no matter what. They were the only ones who voted that round, ….
The entire chronology scares me really …. Had people cared enough to vote in that election, things may have been so different today.
NOTE: I am not comparing Ahmadinejad to Palin. I hear that comparison a lot lately, and although I understand where these people are coming from, I don’t think it is a valid comparison – at least not entirely!
hi,
i host and produce an english-language iranian radio program on a community radio station in the states and would like to feature this post and your thoughts about the election on the show.
i’d greatly appreciate it if you’d get in touch with me at:
radiosaba@gmail.com
Sure Nilufar!
Oh noo … Ahmadinejad is really intelligent. He really is not a dumbo! But this Palin is a real bimbo!
Obama makes news again!
I wish it turns out to be a good one this time.
). Though it was too obvious this time 
but I guess every one needed this change.
At least I am happy with the people of America (specifically in the case of elections, as otherwise they are just like people of any other country
Though Poor Obama takes over, at a really bad moment in history, I am still really hopeful~
Thanks dear Pedestrian! I have finally broken the barrier ….
so I have to write… have to start anew ~
There is just too much to write about !
But I know, I cannot live without writing
Have a wonderful day!
LOL!
Naj! I think that would make a good topic for a post: “Why Ahmadinejad is NOT Sarah Palin”! Except that she is old news now! (I don’t think so! I think we have to frightfully await her return, but that’s today media for you!) Because to a lot of people associate them together.
Thank you Esfand for the warm wishes! Right back atchya
Sitting on the outside, all we can do from here is watch to see what happens. But from the inside, I hope that those who helped him get elected will not hibernate. They are more needed now than even before the elections!
He did make headlines, huh?
Hi Pedestrian- thanks for another great post. i’ll have to add you to my blogroll as soon as that whole thing is up and running again. keep up the great work.
Hi Niki! Thank you for reading! And writing! You’re already on my blogroll because I visit often …
You can not imagine what a joy it is to read an Iranian blogger who writes so well … who doesn’t just bash & trash Iranian politicians because the rest of the world likes it! … someone whose brain doesn’t smell of rotted cheese!
And I don’t mean that to sound bad!
Pedestrian,
I found your site through Naj, who keeps me on my toes and has given me delightful windows on Iran. This post is remarkable at explaining the political mirror image between Iran and the United States. Of course the mirror is distorted in its ways, but we both suffer from the fundies and their collective power in exercising democracy. And from the fact that only about one-half of one percent of people in the US realize that Iran conducts elections, that it is a democracy.
I would like to post a portion of the above on my blog, and add you to my blog roll.
Thanks Marc! I was ahead of you … I found you on Naj’s weblog before you found me!
I think we are also similar in that the progressive voices in our societies have not/could not/will not take more fundamental steps in cementing their place … They just haven’t been able to; for a myriad of reasons.
Cool! Pardon me for forgetting.
The basic paradox with progressive voices is that, in order to succeed in a profound way, they have to be sane and yet crazy enough to die for their convictions. Or rich enough to employ other people to do so.
But I think the term is an oxymoron: “rich progressives”. Sure, some of them hold considerable financial wealth, but – one of the – characteristics of all progressive movements (whatever they may be, as the definition in and of itself is a vague one) is that they are outside the main political machine. They are outside the main circle of wealth.
But nor is dying an option – at least on its own. Whatever route they take, it must be an opening, an event with lasting impact … and not one that will fire up a people for 2 days … and then all is forgotten.
I think one of their greatest failures is that these movements have failed to forge a link with the inside establishment. Those few candidates who have been able to slither inside at defining moments in history, have failed to stay the course, … or have been unable to stay the course.
Our president-elect passes these tests. Obama is outside the main circle of wealth, and he chose a VP who also is. They are the two poorest Senators. So they’ve got a chance, even if they haven’t felt secure enough to unveil their full vision.
I remind my fellow citizens now and again that the Shah was deposed without a shot being fired. Khomeini is not my brand of progressive, but he fit the description.
“Shah was deposed without a shot being fired.”
Not true! Shots were fired, people were imprisoned and tortured (far less than those killed and tortured by Khomeini though), cinemas burned (with people in them; men got executed without trial … Iran’s revolution WAS a bloody one!
Great post P.
Obama always reminds me of our Khatami era. Going to link to this one.
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