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December 15, 2005

Revolutionary narcissism

File this one under the same heading as "why weren't any Iraqis on the podium at any of those huge antiwar rallies of the past three years?"

I mean, oppressed peoples can be so uncooperative. Here we are trying to support their revolutionary struggle, and is there any kind of quid pro quo? Any willingness to understand our dramatic struggle against being co-opted by our privileged Western upbringing? Nooooo. They won't stick to the script. It has to be all about them.

[Amir Taheri relates:]I had been trying for months to persuade the Western media to take an interest in Ganji, a former Khomeinist revolutionary who is now campaigning for human rights and democracy. But we never got anywhere because of one small hitch: President Bush had spoken publicly in support of Ganji and called for his immediate release. And that, as far as a good part of the Western media is concerned, amounts to a kiss of death. How could newspapers that portray Bush as the world's biggest "violator of human rights" endorse his call in favor of Ganji?

To overcome that difficulty, some of Ganji's friends had tried to persuade him to make a few anti-American, more specifically anti-Bush, pronouncements so that the Western media could adopt him as a "hero-martyr.". . . Would Ganji adopt [this] tactic in order to get media attention in the West? The answer came last January and it was a firm no. The result was that Ganji, probably the most outspoken and courageous prisoner of conscience in the Islamic Republic today, became a non-person for the Western media.

But that's not the end of this tale of rampant narcissism disguised as social activism. Because when Ganji's plight finally received some recognition, prominent fashionista activist Bianca Jagger was there . . . .

(all links from Neo, since NYPost stores don't stay online very long)

Judith | 12/15/05 at 09:10 AM | Categories: - Useful idiots

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