Through the Eyes of the Mahdi: Understanding Contradictions in Modern Iran

     Myths serve an important role in identity creation.  Myths, as defined by my field of study, anthropology, are “a common or shared historical experience.” (Oregon State University)  The Founding Fathers serve for Americans as the paragons of liberal values such as equality, despite many of them being slaveholders, but reality is not essential to the myth.  For the myth, what matters is the meaning people inscribe into the shared story, what beliefs and emotions that conjure up inside people when exposed to it.  What we will explore is the role of the Twelver Shi’i belief in the Mahdi in the Islamic Republic of Iran.  An examination of the Mahdi gives us a window into the Iranian government's beliefs.

Breaking Through the Nuclear Fog: Peace, Power and Iran

     Every one of us has been a front line soldier since 1945.  This argument, put forward by Christopher Hitchens, reminds us of the totality of nuclear weapons.  Pundits, politicians and war hawks tell us that nuclear weapons have, and will continue to, keep us safe. The example they always point to is the Cold War.  These O’Reillys, Krauthammers and other neoconservatives portray that tumultuous period of history, which nearly brought humanity’s denouement, as one of peace.  It should be shocking to anyone who lived through that period or who studied history to hear that practice in revisionism.  However, when Iran comes close to actualizing a nuclear program, the same prophets of the splitting atom suddenly apostatize their faith in the ICBM Princes of Peace.  Is this newly implemented deal between the US and Iran really about Iran developing nuclear weapons, as that has been the topic of the public debate of the deal, or about Iran reaching energy independence?  Would possessing a nuclear weapon be adventitious for Iran?