Popular Uprisings_Iran_China
Hi Hawk,
Re: And if you recall what happened to the prevailing government the last time those students created a major uproar...
My recollection of the events in 1979 that the partisans that overthrew the Shah are somewhat different from yours. What I mean is that there are students, and then there are students..... In 1979, the preponderance of the street activists who were in favor of the fundamentalist regime were largely youths who were from rural districts, had much less education than their peers in the urban universities and tended to be overwhelmingly consevative and religious in their outlook. In fact, they were in many respects, very similar to the graduates of the madrassas who are giving the world so much grief today.
Similarly, when demonstrators for democracy were gunned down on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, it was the rural, conservative militia forces of the PRC that were suppressing their more liberal, more urbanized and better educated peers.
If you think I'm trying to make a case that conservatism is usually a more repressive and less enlightened answer to the world's problems, I will own up to it. This is why I view the growth of fundamentalism in the U.S. with increasing concern. We are, in some ways, falling into the same traps as other societies have.
Best, Ray |
