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Iran Tries To Pacify Protesters With Lord of The Rings Marathon

Iranian state television's Channel Two is playing a Lord of the Rings marathon in an attempt to keep people inside watching hobbits and not protesting in the streets. Normally, people in Tehran are treated to one or two Hollywood movies a week, but with recent events the government hopes that sitting through a nine-hour trilogy will take the fight out of most of the protesters. Perhaps this was not the best choice in films if you want your people not to believe that "even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

18 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Can't have it both ways by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Uh yea. Blatantly rig an election, and people tend to get pissed off. It's about more than just lining up in front of the cute little box. They had substantially more votes than people in more than 10(?) districts, and the race which was predicted to be very close, turned out to be a complete landslide. Every observer called the election rigged, even some of the internal ones.

    And you're wondering why they're pissed?

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  2. American meddling huh? by Garbad+Ropedink · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the tyrants of Iran are blaming this whole mess on the American media, then they're tying to placate the protesters with American media? A movie trilogy about a bunch of people banding together to overthrow an evil tyrant no less. Nobody could draw parallels between things like the dark riders and the police riding motorcycles beating people with clubs.

    The sense of irony is weak with the Iranian dictatorship...

    --
    And that was the last Terry Fox run I ever participated in.
  3. Showing them LOTR?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Great choice, show everyone they need to stand up and fight against evil forces trying to gain power over everyone. Yes that'll really Pacify Protesters.

    Perhaps tomorrow they can show everyone George Orwell's 1984.

  4. Re:What will happen by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is when it runs counter to how they want things done. But when they see an opportunity to use Hollywood and Western culture to their advantage, they won't shy away from it. In the end, they are just politicians. Highly corrupt, brutal politicians, but politicians nonetheless.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  5. Re:Wrong movie by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A fair number of Iranians have seen 300. "Not amused" would be fair description of the average reaction.

  6. Re:Iran hopefully welcomes ... by tnk1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Excuse me. If you are referring to the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, you need to realize that he is the smartest, most clever and most physically fit.

    It's just that no one else seems to realize it.

  7. Re:Drivel by osu-neko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most Iranians love Americans, love Hollywood, etc. They just hate our government.

    In that respect, they're a lot like most Americans...

    --
    "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  8. Re:Can't have it both ways by powerlord · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is it really to much to ask them not to kill their own citizens in the streets and abduct them from their homes for torture & potential death?

    Short Answer: Yes.

    Long Answer: If you have to ask the above question then I suggest you re-read the definition of "Tyranny" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tyranny.

    I suspect that your original question was rhetorical, but look at the bright side. At least there are reports of arrests of Mousavi and Co. rather than just disappearances (although I'm sure those are happening also).

    The sad truth is that in most of the rest of the world, revolution is the only effective means for a change of government. The advantage of Democracy (so far at least) as practiced in places like the U.S. is that it allows for changes in government to take place without the nasty "war-like" side effect that most revolutions entail. The down side is that changes are USUALLY slower to take place.

    I hope that:

    1) Iran transitions into a government that truly reflects the wishes of its people without bloodshed (alright, that moment is past. Without the need for FURTHER bloodshed).
    2) The wishes of its people are for a government that will interact with the rest of the world in the tolerant and open fashion that the rest of the world has come to expect from most modern countries.

    --
    This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
  9. Re:Eagles? by fdicostanzo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The eagles didn't do their deus ex machina until after the ring was destroyed and mordor made (relatively) safe. Presumably Sauron would have noticed a flock of giant eagles heading over..

    --
    Synergies are basically awesome, and they're even better when you leverage them. -PA
  10. Re:Drivel by eggnet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the Iranians hate their own government more than the US government, by a lot.

  11. Re:Drivel by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's not secular- it's overtly Catholic. So you KNOW things are getting bad when the Mullahs would rather people watch 9 hours of myths inspired by Catholic theology than protest in the streets.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  12. Re:The Grotesquely Ugly Truth by conspirator57 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran. We should condemn Iranian culture and its people.

    i agree with you except for this. our past and current interventions both in Iran and with its neighbors have directly contributed to the rise and sustainment of the current Iranian government.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax

    --
    "If still these truths be held to be
    Self evident."
    -Edna St. Vincent Millay
  13. Warsaw Pact Vs. Iranian Despot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    The Soviet Union brutalized Eastern Europe for 40 years. Allied with the army of the Kremlin, the authoritarian governments of Eastern Europe, from 1950 until 1988, killed their own citizens as they tried to flee. For 40 years, the Eastern Europeans suffered under the brutal yoke of oppression.

    Then, after the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe in 1989, the peoples of each nation in Eastern Europe removed their authoritarian goverment and rapidly established a genuine democracy and a free market. Except for Romania (where its people killed their dictator), there was no violence.

    That is how people act when they want freedom and free markets.

    In 1979, after the Iranian people overthrow the despot whom the Americans supported, the Iranians immediately established a brutal, authoritarian theocracy.

    That is how people act when they reject both freedom and free markets.

    Cultures are different. Eastern-European culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran. We should condemn Iranian culture and its people.

    1. Re:Warsaw Pact Vs. Iranian Despot by mikerz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why "condemn" ? Yes, the people are ultimately responsible for their government. But condemnation is entirely unnecessary, and frankly degrading.

  14. Re:The Grotesquely Ugly Truth by Daimanta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "In the absence of an external interfering force (e. g., army of the Soviet Union), the fate of a nation is determined by its people. Period. "

    No country operates in a vaccuum. Period.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
  15. Re:Read the Silmarillion by Knara · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gee, a mythology where a theological figure falls from grace? That ONLY happens in Christianity!

  16. Re:Drivel by rhennigan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except many Iranians hold the US responsible, at least in part, for their many government problems they currently experience.

  17. Re:Drivel by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    However for these morons like the poster above; that act as though if the US had just not had any involvement everything would be unicorns and rainbows in Iran.

    That's your own straw man. He implied that U.S. involvement prevented unicorns and rainbows in Iran, but not that the unicorns and rainbows would necessarily show up if the U.S. were not involved.