The Islamic Republic of Iran Loves OWS

"Prominent among the many democratic impulses unleashed by the Occupy Movement has been the desire to challenge dominant narratives of the world in which we live, narratives that not only justify the power of the 1%, but that systematically direct our attention away from structural inequality towards other loci of worry, hatred and fear. Constant speculation about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, or about the likelihood of war with Iran, functions precisely in this way, perpetuating imperial and Islamophobic notions of 'us' and 'them.' Replacing the Soviet enemy in the contemporary cultural and political lexicon, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) is constituted as the antithesis of America, a repository of the most menacing traditional Orientalist tropes¾combined with the most terrifying modern nuclear threat. In order to counter such pervasive representations, Western journalists occasionally travel to Iran and compile evidence of friendly Iranians who look to the US as a model to emulate or as a force that might intervene on their behalf.