One thing I've gained already through my Western canon trek: reading the Histories by Herodotus has given me an appreciation for the Persians that I did not have previously. Prior to beginning the book, I carried a certain... impression of Middle Eastern cultural- backwardness that is likely relatively common from those Gen-Yers who only know of dictatorial regimes and suicide bombers. Yes, there's the Babylonians who were uncommonly advanced, but the point is that I came out of the book with a new worldview. Consider Cyrus the Great, a despot who freed the Persians from bondage and took over a great majority of Western Asia, who put in place a policy of widespread religious tolerance and freed the Jews from captivity/exile.
Meanwhile, the mullahs in modern Iran have actively attempted to distance themselves from the founder of their country, a man held in the highest respect by the citizenry. It's shameful that the clerics refer to the man as a "homosexual Jew-lover" and attempt to destroy the cultural artifacts of that period. The point here is that the current Iranian theocracy aren't just dictatorial. The antipathy that they have toward the culture of the people that they rule gives them another role: invaders. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
