Criticism of culture is a necessary matter for social dynamism. For over a century, Iranian society has been firmly rooted in various efforts to maintain ancient structures of tyranny, and its extent has reached a critical stage. In such a situation, whether willingly or unwillingly, the issue of cultural analysis becomes necessary, as cultural crises are intertwined with other crises and inefficiencies in the political and social sphere, acting as a chain that can only be broken through cultural criticism. Cultural criticism is, in fact, the most fundamental form of critical and analytical examination that pulls all values, norms, behaviors, and beliefs out of the institutionalized form within history and engages in a critical re-examination of them; a function that undoubtedly leads to the development and advancement of society.

Revisiting criticism is necessary; (1) The issue that the series of social events in Iran over the past hundred years has doubled its necessity. The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, the nationalization of the oil industry, the resistance against the coup of August 28th, armed movements, the anti-monarchy revolution of 1979, post-revolutionary social uprisings, and the current era have exposed the true essence of Iranian society, as the masses have taken steps towards changing the current situation through their social and political struggles in order to challenge dominant characteristics and overthrow outdated foundations. The necessity of examining historical events arises from the fact that contemporary events are defined in opposition to various forms of tyranny.

The ancient traditions of tyranny in Iran have taken shape in a way that deprives any critical thinking and considers its own intellectual inclination as the only chosen and dominant one. The tradition of tyranny in Iran resolves critical phenomena in a way that is mentally perceived as having no solution. The deep-rooted crises, which emphasize the elimination, suppression, and slaughter of progressive thoughts, have hindered the expansion of critical thinking and paved the way for regressive thoughts. As a result, after more than a hundred years of struggles by political-revolutionary movements in Iran, not only has tyranny not been abolished, but it has been justified by relying on ancient traditions as an inseparable part of Iranian culture. The Iranian society has not been able to move forward in shaping democratic mechanisms and the right to determine its own destiny.

In fact, Iranian society is caught between the dominance of past autocratic monarchies and the current religious government, and on the other hand, it continues to insist on the non-democratic and authoritarian foundations of its historical cultural factors without criticism.

The revolution is defined as a transformation and the overthrow of all ancient structures and the creation of new social foundations. Based on this, the occurrence of two revolutions in Iran – the Constitutional Revolution and the Revolution of Bahman 1357 – could not achieve their demands, such as the rule of the masses, independence, freedom, social justice, and all progressive demands.

In this way, one can search for the inadequacy of public demands in the cultural body and realize that the values and beliefs of Iranian society are based on a long-standing tradition of despotism. The most important way to break away from this long-standing domination is first to criticize and examine it, which requires a conscious presence and avoidance of hysterical collective approaches; an approach that ultimately leads to the decline of social movements or provides the grounds for the formation of the most reactionary and fascist thoughts.

Attention to culture has always been accompanied by a top-down approach and emphasis on depoliticization by various regimes ruling over Iran, as government officials have well understood that class awareness is the driving force that challenges the old foundations and moves towards revolutionary interpretation of change. For example, the imposed policies during the Shah’s regime emphasized the authoritarian foundations in order to not only strengthen the autocratic monarchy, but also to cover up their anti-popular demands; a phenomenon that has taken on new dimensions and is firmly rooted in anti-democratic and anti-popular foundations under the current government, with the expansion of tools of power. This approach does not recognize the participation of the masses and simplifies the issue of development in a dictatorial manner. The obvious truth in the current Iranian society is that, despite efforts, the mental constructs of domination have not been rejected and denied; both by many opponents of the current situation and a significant portion of society who still defend and promote authoritarian constructs. Therefore, criticizing culture requires

Criticism of culture is a necessary factor for the expansion of political thinking. Contradictory discourses such as “the end of ideologies era”, “the era of marketization” and “the impossibility of change” do not work effectively in cultural criticism and do not lead to the desired destination. All of these concepts are discourses that intentionally encourage silence and depoliticization. In fact, the main function of such discourses is to facilitate power-building policies of structural adjustment that have had disastrous consequences in neighboring countries.

With these interpretations, in a society where its cultural foundations are not separate from tyranny, the two principles of “reason” and “freedom” have not yet taken shape in the social-political sphere of Iran and old structures still remain strong. Finding a solution to this issue requires creating platforms for spreading political awareness and collective participation. However, it does not seem that any effort has been made to expand critical thinking and organize a political-philosophical perspective in cultural criticism.

Note:

1- Mokhtari, Mohammad, Training in Tolerance, Mashhad, Bootimar Publications, 2nd edition: 1395.