{"id":2303,"date":"2026-03-15T13:53:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T20:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/?p=2303"},"modified":"2026-03-15T13:53:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T20:53:47","slug":"known-unknowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/2026\/03\/15\/known-unknowns\/","title":{"rendered":"Known unknowns"},"content":{"rendered":"

I find myself for want of words regarding the unknown unknowns in Iran, but there are<\/em> some known unknowns. For example: how much attrition of his \u201cpopularity\u201dwill Trump\u00a0 tolerate before changing course.<\/p>\n

If anything, the bombing is reinforcing the Islamic Republic\u2019s legitimacy because of not- so-latent Iranian nationalism. As a friend Mateo Farzaneh says on You Tube, the regime has long been planning on this turn of events.\u00a0 Garden variety Iranians, not speaking here about Iranian-Americans, will bear the brunt of the attacks. This is a population which is desperate but, apart from a small group of insubordinates, culturally inclined to slavishness anyway.\u00a0 All that charming politeness is a sham, a cover for conformity.(Here I admit I am trespassing onto treacherous grounds of \u201cnational character.\u201d But so be it.)<\/p>\n

Another known unknown is that the Islamic Republic, however \u201cbarbaric,\u201d is as \u201clegitimate\u201d\u2019 as the American one, currently anyway. It is predicated on and defends a powerful current of Iranian life, Shiism. Iran, Like the US, is a deeply divided country. Many of those in exile\u00a0 or in migration tend to forget that fact, just as many of those in the US resistance like to forget that 30 % or so of Americans are religious, racist, what have you.<\/p>\n

Add to this the proclivity of Shiism for martyrdom (also reflected in the self-sacrifice of the Iranian resisters), the savvy and experience and intelligenceof Iran\u2019s regime (which has enabled it to prepare for twqhis war for decades) and you have the making of a genuine conflict, one which the forces of Good are not likely to win.<\/p>\n

When Trump decides he has had enough,he may not be able to end this war. The Iranians have to agree. They won\u2019t, or so I predict.<\/p>\n

So I find myself, with regret \u2014 to echo Carney \u2014 not really pulling for the Islamic Republic, but respecting it. This makes me fearful for what will come.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0 I age I find myself increasingly inclined<\/p>\n

to conservative positions, though not<\/p>\n

In the least attracted to the GOP, and indeed repelled by MAGA. All the more reason to follow DropSitenews https:\/\/www.dropsitenews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One thing\u00a0 I know I don\u2019t to conserve is willful ignorance of uncomfortable, unpleasant, awful even\u00a0 horrific fact.<\/p>\n

Social truth is by definition false.<\/p>\n

A writer, not an inditer.<\/p>\n

Over the symphony of deep breaths and light snore composed by Nasrin and our cat floats my own bated respiration, as I lie awake contemplating\u00a0 the wonder of my own nervous system, running from the soggy lobes of my brain through the central and the autonomous and pyramidal skein of fibrius nenbranes all rge way to the tips of my fingers and toes. actually consisting of nexi of electrochemical reactions\u2026.<\/p>\n

Nouvellle adresse en langue fran\u00e7aise, par occasion en d\u2019autres. Fait suite \u00e0 geogeoplots\u00a0 en Twitter \/ X.<\/p>\n

It is a natural enough reaction for poets to command attention as special creatures, sensitive, etc\u2026. But what if everyone was a poet. No special claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find myself for want of words regarding the unknown unknowns in Iran, but there are some known unknowns. For example: how much attrition of his \u201cpopularity\u201dwill Trump\u00a0 tolerate before changing course. If anything, the bombing is reinforcing the Islamic Republic\u2019s legitimacy because of not- so-latent Iranian nationalism. As a friend Mateo Farzaneh says on … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Known unknowns”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2304,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303\/revisions\/2304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}