Žižek mentions Ahmadinejad's demagogic distributing of crumbs to the poor: it's worth recalling that this is how the mullahs cemented their power after the fall of the Shah but before the Islamic Revolution (there was an interim regime of about a year, when Khomeini took up residence at Qom and seemed to be politically inert, more like a Pope)
the Shah had been spending a vast amount (oil revenues) on military equipment: for a while the oil kept flowing (until the wells needed maintenance) & the new regime simply stopped the military spending & distributed cash around the populace
who quickly concluded that the new regime was a Good Thing, and gave them a lot of slack when Khomeini finally roused himself for the extreme stuff
3 comments:
excellent analysis there
Žižek mentions Ahmadinejad's demagogic distributing of crumbs to the poor: it's worth recalling that this is how the mullahs cemented their power after the fall of the Shah but before the Islamic Revolution (there was an interim regime of about a year, when Khomeini took up residence at Qom and seemed to be politically inert, more like a Pope)
the Shah had been spending a vast amount (oil revenues) on military equipment: for a while the oil kept flowing (until the wells needed maintenance) & the new regime simply stopped the military spending & distributed cash around the populace
who quickly concluded that the new regime was a Good Thing, and gave them a lot of slack when Khomeini finally roused himself for the extreme stuff
some of the people notionally on my side of politics regard the regime as 'anti-imperialist'...
I hesitate to intrude ...
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