The Iranian Dream

THE ONGOING protests in the streets of Iran and the social and political developments that followed the presidential elections are reminders of a century-long quest for democracy and three decades of struggle for republican values against theological rule in the Iranian public sphere. Not since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 have such large-scale demonstrations taken place in Iran. Tens of thousands of young Iranians, women, students, artists, intellectuals, and ordinary people have been assembling and rallying in the Iranian cities defying the governmental restrictions and challenging the ... More

Will the Revolution be Tweeted?

The revolution will be no re-run, brothers,
The revolution will be live.

-Gil Scot-Heron, “The Revolution will not be televised”

IF GIL Scot-Heron’s anthem of revolution saw television’s jejune concerns as an opiate to be dispensed with in the revolutionary moment, should we view Twitter.com as help or hindrance to mass mobilization?  Never ones to miss a story that broadcasts well over wi-fi at Starbucks, reporters have pounced upon news of a young official at the More

Confronting Iran

I AM a statist in many ways and in many areas. I believe that government has an important role to play in the economy, in health care, in protecting the environment, and certainly in foreign policy. But reading about the mass demonstrations in Iran, my first thought isn’t about what the U.S. government should do or what President Obama should say. It is about what the rest of us should do and say.

We boast of our lively civil society, and those of us on the liberal left call ourselves internationalists. So l... More