foucault-and-the-iranian-revolution-janet-afary

Appendix 197
an episode that started almost sixty years ago, the attempt to modernize the
Islamic countries in a European fashion. The shah still dings to this as if it
were his sole raison d'etre. I do not mow ifhe is still looking toward the year
2000,27 but I do mow that his famous gaze dates from the 19 20s. 28
There are in Iran as in Europe certain technocrats, whose function is to
correct the errors of the previous generation of technocrats. They speak of
measured growth, of development, but also of the environment. They speak
of the social fabric with respect. One of them explained to me that everything
could still be straightened out, that a "reasonable" modernization could occur,
which would take " cultural identity" into account, but on condition that
the king abandon his dreams. Turning around, he showed me a huge photo
on the wall where a small, disguised man was strutting in front of a gemstudded
throne, as a way of saying, in the manner of de Tocqueville: ''This is
the man with whom we will have to govern Iran."
Even now, this ambitious man and several others with him would like
to continue to save "modernization" by limiting the shah's powers and by
neutralizing his dreams. They have not understood that in Iran today it is
modernization that is a dead weight.
I have always regretted that corruption, which attracts so many unscrupulous
people, interests honest people so little. Do you know of a treatise on
political economy, or of sociology or history books, that offers a serious and
detailed analysis of the speculation, corrupt practices, embezzlement, and
swindling that constitute the veritable daily bread of our trade, our industry,
and our finances?
In Tehran, I at last met my man, an austere economist with malicious
eyes.
"No," he told me, "corruption was not the misfortune that compromised
the country's development, nor has it been the dynasty's weakness. It has always
been the dynasty's way of exercising power and a fundamental mechanism
of the economy. Corruption is what held despotism and modernization
together. Please consider that it is not a vice that is more or less hidden. It is
the regime. "
I then had the privilege of hearing a superb presentation on "Pahlavi corruption.
" The clever professor knew a lot. By birth, he was well enough connected
to the traditional wealth of his country to be familiar with the old-time
ruses, and his expertise had helped him to understand today's procedures
well.
He showed me how Reza Shah, this unknown who came to power with
only foreign support, had immediately inscribed himself on the economy of
the country as a result of predatory conquests-confiscation of a few great