Slashdot Mirror
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."
LoTR is allowed in Iran? I thought it was too secular, or blasphemous, or something.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
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.
On the other hand, it does reinforce the notion that brown people are a fallen race of brutes that are incapable of even the most basic language, let alone organized self-government. If the Iranians start believing that canard, then there goes the revolution.
Then again, JRRT's solution is that a nice little white dude from England will come fix it up for you because he's so damned pure of spirit and incorruptible by evil (hah). Of course, he will bring with him some elves and dwarves (also white), a wizard with the surname "the white" and some other random white dude that claims the right to be King because his daddy was King and he has a nice looking sword (that apparently being a perfectly good reason to assert your right to absolute authority).
Somehow, I don't think the Ayatollahs want that conclusion sinking in either.
The history is a little more complex than that: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/s/sauron.html
Most Iranians love Americans, love Hollywood, etc. They just hate our government.
In that respect, they're a lot like most Americans...
Well, I am an Iranian and I'd say using the word "love" carries a bit of exaggeration. I think Americans are as cool and any other nationalities including Israelite. Actually, my best friends where I live are Americans, not because I love them but because we have common concerns. Also "hate" is exaggeration. I personally see Obama's administration a legitimate thing and his policies seem much wiser than Bush's. And AFAIK most educated Iranians agree with me on those things. In fact as someone else has put, I mostly hate my own governors than those of any other country.