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in Iran; for, as I stated in the b egin n in g o f this article, recently, the ex ile
m onarchists, in the w ake o f a foreign in vasion o f Iran, have undertaken to
system a tica lly present these fro licso m e and rather decadent cultural aspects o f
the Pahlavi M onarchy as d em ocracy to the hard-pressed Iranian pop u lace,
thereby p avin g the w ay for a probable restoration.
A ll this is w h ile dem ocracy, as m uch as b ein g a “so c ia l” phen om en on ,
or even m ore than that, is a “p o litica l” phenom enon; w h ich m eans that freedom
in individual and social b ehavior d oes not n ecessa rily equal or lead to the
“greater n e c e ssity for d em ocracy,” i.e. p olitical freedom : to a hum an right to
m aintain a v o ic e and exp ress an independent opinion on the p rocess o f
governance, and to an inalienable constitutional right to participate in the
governin g o f the s e lf and the nation. Therefore, the m on arch ists’ m aj orly
calculated m yop ic p osition, by w ay o f analogy, sm acks o f the claim that the
existen ce o f ca sin o s and clu b s in Las V eg a s is the essen ce o f d em ocracy in the
U nited States, and the D eclaration o f Independence, the U .S . C onstitution, and a
m yriad o f other b ills, docu m en ts, and am endm ents have nothing w h atsoever to
do w ith it. T o put it lo g ica lly , their claim constitutes a “reverse d ed u ction .”
Ironically, there ex ists a patent cou n ter-exam p le to the m on arch ists’ claim ,
w h ich is India, w h ich w h ile m any o f the a b ove-m en tion ed facts about the
Pahlavi cultural sphere, such as the display o f sex and even k issin g in the
cinem a, are still absent from it, not m any can be found to deny that India is one
o f the greatest d em ocracies o f the contem porary world.
Merce Cunningham during the sixth Shiraz Arts Festival (1972)
A s such, the illu sion o f luxury that w as b ein g p u b licized b y Film farsi,
Rangarang S h ow , and y e llo w journalism , in effect cast a lon g sh ad ow over the
principal truth that in spite o f the appearance o f leading a thriving so cia l life, the
m ajority o f the Iranian p eo p le on ly lay in the m argins o f this m odern-day