The Kafkaesqueries of the privileged denizens of government and their allies in academia and the mainstream media

From Khamenei’s Dilemma by Christopher de Bellaigue.  The subheading is As protests in Iran continue, the regime’s attempts to crack down on them may create an unstoppable spiral of state violence and popular fury.

But this agitation, like all Iranian agitations, is a valve for a more general anomie—one that combines global ills like social inequality and a sick planet with Kafkaesqueries of a more local character.

But that's not quite right is it?  Iran is not having a rebellion (or revolution) because of amorphous and undefined global ills or because of social inequality.  The population is in rebellion because there is such a gulf between the wants and needs of the nation (freedom) and the priorities of government (theological conformity, international posturing, sponsorship of groups and strategies to further international influence, etc.).  

The only Kafkaesqueries are the mincing and prancing and chanting of meaningless words (global climate warming, social inequality, diversity, renewables, etc.) when what the people need and want are cheap, reliable, effective, and safe food, water, transportation, security, education, natural rights, etc.  

The New Yorker Magazine muttering magic artsy words in evanescent devotions appropriate to the Woke initiate is a mockery and disrespect of ordinary people.  It is the court jester distracting the monarch from the shouting masses with pitchforks.

de Bellaigue is writing for the old mainstream media and providing the dressed up ideological pablum that is so reassuring to finer sensitivities.

This contrasts with actual reporting from Failures of Imagination by Ali Ansari.  The subheading is The Iranian regime is fighting a protest movement it does not understand and cannot seem to control.

The recent decision of the Iranian courts to sentence a protestor to death, alongside at least 326 believed to have been killed in violent crackdowns against the protests, is a stark reminder of the ruthlessness and moral bankruptcy of the Islamic Republic. It is also indicative of a regime bereft of ideas and increasingly distant from the aspirations of its population.

Modern Iran has experienced a series of revolutions, social, economic and political. It is often characterised as being both prone to revolutions, and politically inert; assumptions that can lead to some awkward analyses. These are not entirely contradictory positions. The absence of change can often catalyse revolutionary upheaval as pressures mount against a reactionary state. But it is true that long periods of stupor - reinforcing a sense of the ‘unchanging east’ - can lead to both political and analytical complacency as regimes become over-confident and analysts become bored. It is precisely in such situations that we should become wary.

Ansari has by far the better grasp on reality than does de Bellaigue.  In de Bellaigue's totalitarian world, progress comes from holistically solving the total problems of imagined global ills, social inequalities and the mental illnesses which breed concerns about Kafkaesqueries.

Ansari is more concrete.  Solve the problems created by unconstrained government.  Not easy but at least it can be achieved.  Unlike anyone trying to address the totality of global ills, social inequalities and the mental illnesses which breed concerns about Kafkaesqueries.

Further from Ansari.

A key element in the success of the political revolution is government weakness. Revolutions are rarely ‘won’: it is governments which lose power. But weakness can be defined in a variety of ways. It can relate to indecision, fractures within the elite, but also a stubborn determination not to change one’s ways – on the pretext that this reflects strength. To keep repeating the ways of the past in the belief that brute force will compensate for corrupt governance. If the recent protests have shown anything it is that this is not a recipe for long term success, still less stability. It may buy the regime some time but in the absence of structural reforms, it is a policy of depreciating returns, as the growing frequency – and intensity – of protests suggests.

America, Iran, the EU - everywhere people are suffering from the disconnect between the desires and aspirations of ordinary citizens and the preening totalitarian concerns of government.  That may be distressing for the privileged denizens of government and their allies in academia and the mainstream media, but it is the real root problem.  

Solve real problems relevant to the most people and you will make real progress.  Solving imaginary problems in totalitarian fashion does nobody any good.