Yet another Colored Revolution

Iran is getting through sensible times since the presidential elections. Though many elections arise on a regular basis throughout the World, the Planet (or more exactly the Western media) concentrates most of its attention on this democratic event. Only Michael Jackson’s death could dampen the media storm.

I am not Iranian, I don’t live in Iran. I do not dream about past splendour of my country and I do not suffer ongoing annoyances in my day life due to backward clerics.
However, I love Iranians and Muslims (as my wife and her family) as much as French and Americans, Jewish and Christians (I am supposed to be French and Christian).
Citizenship, religion, skin colour and education make no difference for me (though I definitely place our dear cats above all living beings).

When I was younger (gee, I am almost 55!), I thought that there was only black and white in politics, and that black was wrong. My father taught me first that Red was Black. Later the mainstream media hammered me what the color was and I was happy with these certainties so I could give up with Politics: Politicians where honest, energetic and knowledgeable; journalists were informed, courageous and objective and told the Truth – paper and waves broadcast cannot be wrong.
I progressively matured and began to be suspicious, studying side information and divergent opinions. Politicians are egomaniac and corrupted, journalists care about their living and are just less informed then anyone who really seek for (faith) information (Thanks God, there are exceptions!). I now don’t take anything I have not witnessed for granted. I always explore the opposite eventuality of the report meaning and the common opinion that build up on seemingly unanimity.

My work specialty – and hobby – is Information. I will not develop here this fantastic concept and physical entity that drives and shapes the World, converting raw material and energy into incredible products like Apple’s, the ultimate intrinsic nature of the universe that started as Big Bang pure energy. Put simply we live in the middle of its course at the material stage, increasing spirit and knowledge, cooling down and vaporizing the stuff.

Information’s intrinsic value is not readily accessible. We use physical artefacts to capture and transmit it. That means nobody knows or looks for it – the Truth –, one of the philosophers favourite subject. What we call information is a physical (newspaper...) or energetic (waves...) transcript of the perception of the sender. It become a new information, different of the original one, disconnected from the situation it was supposed to describe. The same distortion occurs at the recipient side. To add up, the transmitted information is always truncated and the sender and receiver feelings are of premium importance in the message initial and final meaning. Last but not least, the sender can intentionally fake the message to convey a specific understanding serving hidden purposes while the receiver can be pre-cooked to accept the message  by intense brainwashing. In short and concretely, what you perceive from the News can be very different from the original facts' nature and meaning.

To illustrate that, my wife and I went to a small village in France where I had to attend a meeting. This was supposed to be a pretty place, but the weather was disastrous and the town was empty and sad. Between two showers, my wife went strolling in the streets shooting pictures that she assembled in a Smilebox fancy slideshow. It was amazing: nobody in the group could believe that they were staying in such a wonderful place!

Not only what we call information isn’t. In addition, its distorted nature has pervert effects. A News can very well report the opposite of the original fact and still be considered true by the receiver because he heard more often the wrong than the Right. The effects are lasting, because it physically takes much more energy to erase information than to create or transmit it. More than 50% of Americans still believe that Iraq had WMD. If the mainstream – audible - media are synchronized by some common interest or direction, they can induce behaviour in the whole community that could serve the relevant interests.
Finally, the ranking of the perception is a first order derivative function whatever severe it is. The continuing persecution of the Palestinians is a forgotten routine as well as the suffering of the Iraqis from UN starvation, US massacre and incessant attempts, while Michael Jackson death focuses the entire World attention.

Iran is the target of an openly synchronized systematic misinformation. The Iranian government in general and specifically Ahmadinejad are so outrageously demonized that nobody is indifferent: hate for the ignominious gnome or sympathy for the non-conformant troublemaker designated victim – the later being quite rare. I would not expand on the reasons for the Iran’s ban: necessity for a degree of instability in Middle East (We don’t want the United States of the Middle East) , unforgettable humiliation of the US about the embassy hostages during the revoution, weapon industry war inextinguishable thirst, oil place to control....
There are still numerous honest and perceptive journalists and politicians who still dare to tell some part of the truth (we do not have any here in France apart disputable rightists or leftists who have nothing to lose).

I will not discuss Mr Ahmadinejad ability to govern effectively Iran nor the democratic quality of the Iranian constitution or the handling of the demonstrations by the police. The post-elections riots and demonstrations were real, they reveal a profound discontent in a significant part of the population.

However, I would raise a couple of issues / remarks to possibly balance the inner one way feeling everyone has been abundantly brainwashed

• Inside Iran, there is little doubt that Ahmadinejad has a major support within the population. This might not be visible abroad as his support is inversely proportional to the income - the most opulent part of the population that is Internet enabled mainly broadcasts discontent. While 99% of the journalists and “experts” declare that the election was fraudulent those witnessing the campaign admit that Ahmadinejad’s meetings were way more crowded than those of the other candidates. The linked survey is consistent with the published results. The poor Moussavi’s performance during the debates might have even worsened his score. The alleged panic box filling might have exaggerated the balance, but not changing the outcome.
• The early announcement of Moussavi’s victory was clearly aimed at making suspicious the subsequent official results
• There are very little doubts that US and UK were directly involved in this yet another tentative “colour revolution”. Not because the discredited Iranian government complained about that, but there are too many signs that might turn in proof for more documented intelligence services.
  • Remember the 400M$ voted in 2007 by the US congress for destabilizing the Iran’s religious leadership. Rafsandjani/Moussavi, Pahlavi and the People's Mujahedin of Iran were said to be among the recipients.
  • Just think how almost instantly people went to the streets with the very same green “uniform” that only a duly planned action can explain
  • Not even imagine how internet and mobile phones can be leveraged in this action (this is extensively documented on the web)

I would not negate the possibility of rigged election to the point that the wrong guy won as during the US Bush/Kerry presidential elections. The protest that did not occur for the evident fraud in US turned to open revolt in Iran not because of the election results (yet it was triggered by), but as a clear sign of unrest in the country.
This “revolt” might very well be the manifestation of an unsuccessful external attempt to destabilize Iran on the ground of discontent of from a large part of the population.
Iran is still a very young democracy. Just remember that less than 10 years after the French Revolution the decapitated King was replaced by an Emperor, it took us 173 years before we could elect our President.
Objectively, what exactly distinguishes a “modern” Western democracies that are actually ploutocracies compared to "backward" Iranian democracy that is actually a theocracy? In the first case, the actual power is hidden, and nobody wants to know. In the second case, the remains of the 1979 revolution still try to keep God in control of the secular business while Ploutos stamps behind the bush waiting its time.