Revive Earth – Aligning evidence with implementation. Scottish Charity SCIO SC054917. A UK-based non-profit advancing climate and environmental action through systems thinking, public-interest reporting, policy engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration.
My short piece on Iran & US Israelis war might be of interest. I use the analogy or a circus vs a seminary
Daanish Mustafa Professor in Critical Geography King’s College, London Email: [email protected] Note: First published in The Friday Times Notwithstanding the heart-rending scenes of 164 primary school girls murdered in the joint US/Israeli strikes on Iran, many in the liberal West and East are hoping for a regime change to liberate the Iranian women.…
Notwithstanding the heart-rending scenes of 164 primary school girls murdered in the joint US/Israeli strikes on Iran, many in the liberal West and East are hoping for regime change to liberate Iranian women. We have been here before with women’s liberation in Afghanistan. And we have known the story of women’s liberation at the hands of the West for more than 200 years of European colonialism. Yet many among the elites of the Global South buy the story. The best analogy I can think of to understand this situation is that of a circus and a seminary: the collective West as a circus and Iran as a seminary. The circus represents revelry, curiosity and even freedom to most adolescent imaginations of days past. A seminary, on the other hand, promises faith, discipline, and, ultimately, meaning. The West is a circus, complete with strong men (Pentagon/NATO), clowns (Trump/Hegseth), dwarfs (European Union/Keir Starmer), captive lions and elephants (people of the Global North and South), apes and monkeys (leadership of the Global South) kept in Bretton Woods cages. There are lion tamers and mahouts (IMF and the World Bank). There is a house of horror (Israel), joy rides (shopping malls, technology and consumerism), and soothsayers (Western media)—not to mention magic shows (green development and climate finance). One can even meet Merlin to peer into the crystal ball (Western academia). It is a complete package for a cheering public the world over. The desire to run away with the circus has long been a longing for freedom, adventure and discovery. But has any real circus ever delivered that? Yes, it has provided a home to the social ‘misfit’ and the ‘weird’ at different times. But most of the time, it has delivered captivity to the human and the non-human alike, compelling them to perform for a pittance before a paying audience. The Iranian regime is Iran’s problem, and the Iranian people are best placed to resolve it, not the West Every performer must peddle happiness to fill the coffers of the circus managers (global finance), while being worked to the bone. Just ask the residents of the West how it is going. How much of their lives has been reduced to performance, masking back-breaking labour and social and spiritual loneliness? Epstein Files And The Myth Of Western Superiority A seminary, on the other hand, promises—and then delivers—discipline. Sometimes it can offer faith and, at its best, a journey towards discovering meaning. It is through meaning that people find the sum of their human existence: dignity. With meaning, a pauper can have dignity; without it, a king can have none. A seminary can be, and often is, authoritarian. From its windows, the circus appears enticing and glamorous. Many leave the seminary to join the circus and never look back, as much of the Southern diaspora has done in the West. One cannot begrudge anyone that choice. But is this truly a Manichaean choice for humanity? The circus insists it is the only show in town. Humans desire freedom, joy and levity, but not at the expense of meaning and dignity. Humans may not be unique in their ability to think, as we now know, but, as Aristotle said, they are unique in their ability to laugh. To impose freedom and laughter through violence is a fool’s errand, just as inculcating faith and meaning through fiat is meaningless. The US/Israeli attack on Iran is a crime for all of the above reasons. Iran may be a flawed republic—which one is not? It has one of the highest proportions of women Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates in the world (70 per cent, whereas the US has 36 per cent). More Iranian women are literate (87 per cent) than American women (80 per cent). There are many aspects of gender equality in Iran that require improvement, not least in terms of legal rights. But please leave Iranian women and men alone. The Iranian regime is Iran’s problem, and the Iranian people are best placed to resolve it, not the West. The West’s war of annihilation against the Iranian state is going to fail. It is based on the flawed premise of Western cultural and civilisational superiority. Perhaps this war will catalyse the West’s transition into exactly what has happened to its analogue. The circus was once central to the human social and recreational calendar for millennia. Today, it exists at the margins of human experience. One foresees—and hopes—that this is precisely where the West will find itself in the end. Empire, Gandhi, And Ambedkar: The Struggle Between Hierarchy And Liberation
‘Non-violence is a strategy to renew the broken bonds of humanity, morality and politics between the powerless and the powerful. But in carceral spaces, opposition to hegemony is smeared and met with violence. We saw this in the non-violent Great March of Return (GMR) in. . . Gaza’
Our most recent article on politics of confession and the Gaza-Israel conflict
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