Iran seems to many observers to be next in line for the Iraqi freedom treatment, the latest in a long line of “enemy” nations menaced by overt and covert military threats by the United States and its allies.
As the psyops operations and media propaganda intensifies, you might think war is imminent and that Iran is doing what countries under threat do in these circumstances, such as mobilizing their people and preparing for a bombing onslaught.
Think again. While I have been told that military targets have been or are being moved around, the atmosphere in Tehran is relaxed with more talk of a cultural battlefield than a military one. There’s a commemoration under way of the 33rd anniversary of the Iranian revolution and an international conference on “Hollywoodism and Cinema” as an extension of an annual Fajr film festival
And that’s what I am doing here, as a guest participant in an event that sees Hollywood as a bigger enemy than the Pentagon. It has become for them an “ism” and is the subject of discussions over its global role in shaping positive attitudes towards what passes for American “civilization,” its relationship to the awakenings and uprisings throughout the world – Iran’s Press TV probably devotes more coverage to Occupy Wall Street than any TV channel – and Hollywood’s alleged support for Zionism and Israel, a country that’s only cited here as “the Zionist Regime.”
Israel, in turn, is even more hostile seeing Iran as an “existential threat.” Sometimes it looks like both countries – both under the influence of religious fanaticism – need a stereotyped enemy to rally their own populations. It is Israel that is banging the drums loudest for war.
