March 2001
Volume 52, Number 10
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March 2001 |
Volume 52, Number 10 |
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MONTHLY REVIEW’S February
2001 January 2001 December 2000
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c o n t e n t s » Two decades after the Carter and Reagan administrations launched their attacks on the U.S. regulatory system the world is littered with the wreckage of neoliberal deregulation. Seldom have these failures loomed so prominently, however, as in the rolling blackouts that swept much of California in January of this year.| more | REVIEW
OF THE MONTH In conventional parlance, the current era in history is generally characterized as one of globalization, technological revolution, and democratization. In all three of these areas media and communication play a central, perhaps even a defining, role. Economic and cultural globalization arguably would be impossible without a global commercial media system to promote global markets and to encourage consumer values. The very essence of the technological revolution is the radical development in digital communication and computing. The argument that the bad old days of police states and authoritarian regimes are unlikely to return is premised on the claims that new communication technologies along with global markets undermine, even eliminate, the capacity for “maximum leaders” to rule with impunity. Background to the Parliamentary Elections
The elections for the Sixth Parliament (Majlis) in Iran in February 2000 were not only a shock for the ruling clergy, but also an eye-opening event for the U.S. mass media and its believers who have for years portrayed the Iranian people as a horde of uncivilized, bearded, religious fanatics who did not deserve, and could not comprehend, the Shah’s modernization plan. Consequently, we saw a new twist in international reporting. The elections were reported as “the most democratic,” and the young voters as dancing lovers of Internet Cafes, Baywatch, rap music and Pizza Hut. Clerical Oligarchy and the Question of
“Democracy” For more than twenty years the Islamic regime in Iran, along with its extensive repressive apparatuses, has created an impressive array of ideological and economic mechanisms of control to construct an Islamified civil society and build consensus for the establishment of a theocratic state. Through massive propaganda and the manipulation of religious beliefs the Islamic ruling bloc has succeeded in maintaining its monopoly of power against all external and internal odds. Political repression eliminated, jailed, and exiled the progressive secular forces that had initiated the revolution in 1979. Ideological indoctrination maintained a strong following for the clerical regime. Subverting A
Model Capitalism and
Crisis: Creating a Jailhouse Nation The Myth of the
Middle-Class Society Refuting the Big
Lie |
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 About the Editors:
Paul M. Sweezy· Harry Magdoff If you have any questions or comments |
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