Tehran, Iran, Sep. 13 – Iranian authorities have stepped up arrests of young people in the city of Karaj, west of the capital Tehran, as part of a nationwide “plan to eradicate corruption”.
Dissidents charge that Tehran’s clerical rulers are fiercely cracking down on youths disenchanted with the government’s repressive policies rather than on “trouble-makers”.
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=12410
There is certainly a lot to criticise and condemn about Iran, not least on basic human rights and freedoms, their nuclear program and apparent wish to wipe whole countries of the map… I might well not be the best way to get progress in that society though.
The measure I want to see replace GDP (the ISEW) has not been calculated for Iran so I dont know how it would compare with the UK….
By criticising alternative measures of progress you are offering support for the current way of measuring it, which is certainly a capitalists way of measuring. He may not be the greatest anti-capitalist bu Robert Kennedy did say this of GDP/GNP for instance:
“The Gross National Product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. GNP includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm, missiles and nuclear warheads.
And if GNP includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. GNP measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country…”
The fact that Iranians aren’t free doesn’t conflict with the fact that Britons aren’t free, either. Freedom is not something measured along a scale. You can’t say “this nation is more free than that nation.” Either you are free, or you are not free.
Iranians are not free. Neither are we Britons. If we were free, we would be able to post whatever we wanted on the Internet, under our own names, without fear of reprisals.
Regardless, there is still a flawed assumption illuminated by this post. There is a method of evaluating our wellbeing that places Iranians ahead of Britons. Using it as a guide to decision making, does not imply that Britain will become more oppressive.
thats what ya call dog shit on yer shoes