From: kambizm@ifi.uio.no 
Subject: Fundamentalism 1
Keywords: 
                  Fundamentalism 1 
Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 15:40:39 GMT
Originator: kambizm@gyda.ifi.uio.no


  Industrial revolution in England and the introduction of steam machines
in manufacturing created a resistance among the workers afraid of losing 
their jobs. This anxiety and the harsh realities of the time created the
machine breaking movement, one of the first worker uprising. 
  I take here up the analogy between this movement and the movement which
started in 1962 ( or 63! ) by Khomeini and ultimately resulted to the 
revolution. 
Even if it seems to be a far analogy, the roots to the movements have been the
same. Industrialization breaks down the traditional feudalistic patterns of
production. By this many traditional bussienesses disappear. As an example
a copper smith producing copper Aftabeh is not needed anymore when plastic 
Aftabeh takes its place. The anxiety for the new and development and the
nostalgia makes people to yearn for the past and makes them traditionalists.
Our revolution was a counter reaction against the fast industrialization and
the breaking down of social, cultural and economical relations of the
feudalism. The movement started exactly  after the land reform and the white 
revolution which tended to remove the feudalistic hinderings for
industrialization. It was designed and encouraged by Americans and was
similar to the reforms forced on Japan by Mac Arthur after the war. Much of
the 62s uprising exploited the disaffection of the poors with the regime and
the nostalgy. But in essence it went against the land reform or giving women
the right for education. This can be discerned from the tapes left from the
time. Also the uprising in Afghanistan against the Taraki coup had these
seeds. The reforms started by Khalgh and Parcham parties were actually
tended to modernize the infrastructure of the country. This
alienated the clergy and the big land owners. The war was the war of the 
agrarian Afghanistan against the urban Afghanistan.  Unfortunately
nationalism in Afghanistan and modernization happened under the banner of
communist ideology which gave the clergy and feudals an extra point for
destroying the modernization attempts. Later the soviet and American rivalry
made the whole war to become simply as a brick in a bigger play.

  In the countries with intricate traditional social patterns this fast
industrialization causes cultural conflicts too. The social relations needed
by industries and the urbanization metamorphize the cultural grounds of the
country. Metropoles tend to open up to the cosmopolitan cultural impulses.
This scared the clergy hierarchy and many intellectuals like some writers
with the cry of wolf. Here it is important to notice that the rise of
fundamentalism in Iran is different from the ones in Egypt or Algeria. In
Iran it was modernization and its consequences as mentioned above that
resulted to fundamentalism while in Algeria it is the hopelessness and
unemloyment or the standstill situation that creates the nostalgy. As every
movement needs an ideological glue so doese these ones and the most natural
ideology was ofcourse religion. Religious establishment often developed by
feudalistic standards and its traditinalism are best suited for exploiting
this kind of disaffection and nostalgy . This is specially true when all 
other political groupings with organizational leverage are forbidden in 
the middle east.
                                                Kambiz
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