R'giap mentioned Žižek recently, so, I thought I'd post this...

Will The Cat Above The Precipice Fall Down?

When an authoritarian regime approaches its final crisis, its dissolution as a rule follows two steps. Before its actual collapse, a mysterious rupture takes place: all of a sudden people know that the game is over, they are simply no longer afraid. It is not only that the regime loses its legitimacy, its exercise of power itself is perceived as an impotent panic reaction. We all know the classic scene from cartoons: the cat reaches a precipice, but it goes on walking, ignoring the fact that there is no ground under its feet; it starts to fall only when it looks down and notices the abyss. When it loses its authority, the regime is like a cat above the precipice: in order to fall, it only has to be reminded to look down…(....)

The future is uncertain – in all probability, those in power will contain the popular explosion, and the cat will not fall into the precipice, but regain ground. However, it will no longer be the same regime, but just one corrupted authoritarian rule among others. Whatever the outcome, it is vitally important to keep in mind that we are witnessing a great emancipatory event which doesn’t fit the frame of the struggle between pro-Western liberals and anti-Western fundamentalists. If our cynical pragmatism will make us lose the capacity to recognize this emancipatory dimension, then we in the West are effectively entering a post-democratic era, getting ready for our own Ahmadinejads. Italians already know his name: Berlusconi. Others are waiting in line....

(more)

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 26 2009 6:50 utc | 1

maybe mj can finally enjoy the inappropriate love he felt toward innocent minors dazzled by his monkeys and choo-choo trains.

Posted by: Lizard | Jun 26 2009 7:13 utc | 2

Much appreciated that link, $cam.

Posted by: china_hand2 | Jun 26 2009 7:43 utc | 3

From b's Japan logs record deflation as demand falls - Reuters link, a graph to note:

Prices for transportation and communications fell 5.6 percent in May from a year earlier, more than twice the pace of last month's annual decline, due to lower prices for gasoline, tax breaks on low-emission cars and falling data charges at mobile phone providers, a government official said at a briefing.

The reduced prices on mobile phone data plans had been in the making for over a year, the tax-breaks had also been planned for a while. And yes, mini-cars (low taxes !) are more and more popular over here, and the new eco-friendly cars from Honda and Toyota are selling very well - a cynical friend who follows cars more than I do noted that the new Toyota Prius sells well because Honda can't follow on demand... (the Honda model is about 200,000 Yen cheaper, btw).

As for basic prices (food, etc), we haven't noticed anything at the checkout. Prices seem to go up, up and up.

And yes, the 'crisis' is starting to bite nation wide.

Posted by: Philippe | Jun 26 2009 8:16 utc | 4

My friend tell me that Ahmadinejad has a lot of support outside Tehran and he has heard that there are chants of “marg ba akbar shah” (death to Rafsanjani) and Mousavi is being called a “koskesh”, which apparently means cunt-monger. “Shah” in today’s Iran has become a common word meaning “traitor”, just as “Quisling” did in the West…

Posted by: hans | Jun 26 2009 8:38 utc | 5

Hans, say hello to your friend in the Intelligence Ministry. And oh:

SIEG HEIL!

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 26 2009 8:42 utc | 6

Parviz are you going to enter this $10,000 Reward: Show How the Iranian Election Was "Stolen"

Posted by: hans | Jun 26 2009 9:05 utc | 7

Hans, I know exactly how it was stolen. I read the report. In every election where there's been a high turnout the reformists have won hands-down with majorities of 80 %. This was the largest turnout ever.

The result was due to a combination of ballot box fraud and the Interior Ministry's additional manipulation of the data. The Ministry's IT chief is missing, probably dead.

The Kayhan newspaper carried the headline with the exact margin of Ahmadinejad's 'victory' just one hour after the close of polling, something that would have been technically impossible and proves that the newspaper showing the exact 'margin of victory' had been printed before the polls closed.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 26 2009 9:14 utc | 8

And Hans, I have tolerated your Neo-Nazi comments and attitude long enough. I shall not reply to any of your posts in future, so don't waste your breath addressing me again.

Posted by: Parviz | Jun 26 2009 9:16 utc | 9

they see their activity as the repetition of the 1979 Khomeini revolution, as the return to its roots, the undoing of the revolution’s later corruption.
Interesting to note that "the West" has the same misreading of the Tienanmen protests 20 years ago, which were basically a will to return to the promises of the revolution and to put down the massively increasing corruption of the Chinese establishment.

That said, I don't think Zizek should speak of "Khomeini revolution"; after all, Khomeini is the main cause of its fall, of the treason of the Iranian revolution's potential in favor of archaic clerical islamist rule. He wasn't a white knight whose ideals were betrayed after his departure, he himself decided to physically terminate the secular (and probably as important and numerous) part of the revolution.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Jun 26 2009 9:42 utc | 10

Interesting to note that "the West" has the same misreading of the Tienanmen protests 20 years ago, which were basically a will to return to the promises of the revolution and to put down the massively increasing corruption of the Chinese establishment.

Umm, no, sorry, I was there for those - and in the critical several years leading up to them. Tian'anmen was basically the young and priveleged demanding a life that included the right to designer jeans and color tv's. And hey, credit where it's due, they won.

Posted by: mats | Jun 26 2009 11:24 utc | 11

Sarkozy and Zardari's undoing?

A political scandal is gathering pace over claims that 11 French submarine engineers were murdered in a bomb attack in Karachi seven years ago to punish France for the non-payment of arms contract "commissions" to senior Pakistani officials.

Lawyers for the French victims' families believe the attack, allegedly carried out by Islamist terrorists, was in fact part of a web of financial chicanery and political manoeuvring which may yet severely embarrass senior figures, including the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari.

Two French magistrates investigating the bombing of the engineers' bus in May 2002 have ruled out the possibility that it was an attack by al-Qa'ida on Western interests. They have told the victims' families there is "cruel logic" to an alternative explanation. They believe unknown figures in the Pakistani establishment may have fomented the attack in retaliation for the non-payment of part of the €80m (£68m) in sweeteners promised to senior officials when Lahore bought three Agosta 90B submarines from France in 1994.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jun 26 2009 11:26 utc | 12

DKos comments have been infected by a heavy MoA fever. Waiting for Dr Billmon to spit his cure...

Posted by: thomas | Jun 26 2009 12:47 utc | 13

RIP Sky Saxon, singer with The Seeds in the sixties (Pushin' too Hard)

Posted by: BlueGeneBop | Jun 26 2009 12:49 utc | 14

End Game
Latest development.

6+2 Special Commission

Special committee to be set up ( Dr. Velayati, Hadad Adel , Dori Najafabadi , Abotorabim Rahimian, Jahromi, ) plus representative of Musavi and Karubi
Mission:
1-Prepare A report about Election
2- Recount of 10% ( oversee & Monitoring )

Musavi & Karoub will name their representative within 24 hour of this report.

Posted by: Loyal | Jun 26 2009 15:45 utc | 15

Bad News day to broadcast this gem, but maybe an attack on Iran today, tomorrow and etc., might not be noticed?

Fulfill the Ark's Tigris/Euphrates prophesy?

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jun 26 2009 16:59 utc | 16