The musical threat to Iran's regime

How can we take down Iran's soon-to-be-nuclear-armed regime without firing a shot? There are a number of ways, but the Islamic Republic has been openly betraying its greatest fears: music.

Not just the rock, punk, rap and hip-hop cultures that the regime is trying to repress, but all music. 

Eric Felten writes about it in the Wall Street Journal. In an August 18 piece titled "Why Dictators Hate to See Us Moved by Music," he begins with a recent quote from Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared that music is "not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic."

The problem with music is that "it affects people profoundly and can't be controlled," Felten observes.

And lack of control is what the regime fears - a legitimate response from the hated tyrants who rule a country in which 70 percent of the population is under age 35.

Felten continues in his column with recent psychological studies about the effects of music on individuals' moods, emotions, and overall states of mind. 

Some of Iran's best rock groups are making it to the West and performing abroad, even in the United States. The group Yellow Dogs (pictured) is one of them.

There's an amazing popular cultural revolution going on in Iran today - a youthful, widespread, pro-western rebellion against the sharia regime of the Islamic Republic. Time for the rest of the world to get on board.

(Hat tip to SD)

Comments

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What about encouraging and telling the stories of those who engage in extreme sports too? Who knows the streets and what freedom means more than a skateboarder or biker? I saw this skateboard camp (via webpage: http://skateistan.org/ ) in Afghanistan that was getting aid from the Norwegian embassy, I was said to see it wasn't from the US. Something like this with some support from big name American skateboarders and companies will help create a good image for the US by millions of skaters around the world, trust me, you guys need support in this area. I can think of a quite a few examples of the extreme sports community coming together for causes or even being swayed to take up political ideologies.