Rahyafte (The Guided Ones)
Stars & Systems: Allegations of Zionist Influence in Hollywood https://jscenter.ir/jews-and-the-media/jews-and-hollywood/4898 On the anniversary of cinema, a critical look at claims regarding the relationship between Zionism, Hollywood power, and international…
The Gradual Breaking of Taboos: From Global Cinema to Iran
https://jscenter.ir/slave-jews/muslim-zionism/8593
On the anniversary of cinema, an analysis of how taboos are broken step-by-step, altering a society's culture and lifestyle.
Every culture has its taboos—forbidden behaviors, words, or social matters rooted in religion, tradition, and collective values. The act of "breaking a taboo" is not inherently good or bad. Its morality depends on its target:
· Positive: Challenging irrational, superstitious taboos born from "blind obedience without thought."
· Negative & Invasive: Attacking taboos based on a society's practical, scientific, or deeply held religious experiences. This form is seen as cultural aggression, a cultural blitzkrieg, or cultural promiscuity, and is the primary function of cultural influence and soft war.
This discussion focuses on the second kind: orchestrated, staged taboo-breaking designed to reshape a society's identity and lifestyle.
🎞️ The Global Pattern: A Slippery Slope
Art history shows that breaking taboos is a never-ending line. Once a small taboo is broken, it paves the way for larger, related ones to fall in subsequent years. This is clearly visible in 20th-century cinema.
Early 20th-century cinema was largely respectable, often drawing from the Bible and aiming to guide audiences toward greater humanity (e.g., works by Alice Guy-Blaché, D.W. Griffith).
The shift began with the rise of human-centric, materialist ideologies (both left and right). A landmark moment was the 1933 Czechoslovak film "Ecstasy" (خلسه), directed by Gustav Machatý.
· It was the first major film to explicitly depict sexual acts on screen.
· It featured Jewish actress Hedy Lamarr in full nudity, including scenes of her running naked in a forest and a close-up simulating orgasm.
· Initially banned in the U.S. and elsewhere, it was re-released within seven years as censorship standards changed.
Thus, nudity was one of the first taboos to be slowly, incrementally broken, opening the floodgates for the pornography industry and guiding audiences toward a new "lifestyle."
⚖️ The Reaction: Rating Systems
This staged breaking of red lines eventually forced psychologists and sociologists to react. The demand for filtering content led to the creation of rating systems as a preliminary control mechanism.
The most widespread is the MPAA system (Motion Picture Association of America):
· G (General Audiences): All ages admitted.
· PG (Parental Guidance Suggested): Some material may not be suitable for children.
· PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned): Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13 (introduced in 1984 for intense themes without explicit content).
· R (Restricted): Under 17 requires accompanying parent or guardian. Contains strong language, violence, sex, or drug use.
· NC-17 (Adults Only): No one 17 and under admitted. Clearly explicit sex, extreme violence, etc.
🇮🇷 The Iranian Context: Staged Taboo-Breaking
Cinema in Iran followed a similar path. From its earliest years, attracting audiences was based on the principle of taboo-breaking.
· Before the 1979 Revolution, this was driven by the overt and covert programs of dominant powers.
· After the Revolution, mismanagement by cinematic institutions has, critics argue, led the country's cultural and cinematic conditions toward a state of "cultural promiscuity."
The process is gradual and staged. Breaking one small cultural or religious taboo normalizes the act, creating space to break a larger one later. This systematic erosion is presented as a core strategy for long-term cultural change and identity transformation.
Source: Jewish Studies Center - "Staged Taboo-Breaking in Cinema (Part 1)"
#Cinema #Taboo #Culture #IranianCinema #Hollywood #MPAA #CulturalInfluence #HedyLamarr #Ecstasy
✅ @rahyafte_en
https://jscenter.ir/slave-jews/muslim-zionism/8593
On the anniversary of cinema, an analysis of how taboos are broken step-by-step, altering a society's culture and lifestyle.
Every culture has its taboos—forbidden behaviors, words, or social matters rooted in religion, tradition, and collective values. The act of "breaking a taboo" is not inherently good or bad. Its morality depends on its target:
· Positive: Challenging irrational, superstitious taboos born from "blind obedience without thought."
· Negative & Invasive: Attacking taboos based on a society's practical, scientific, or deeply held religious experiences. This form is seen as cultural aggression, a cultural blitzkrieg, or cultural promiscuity, and is the primary function of cultural influence and soft war.
This discussion focuses on the second kind: orchestrated, staged taboo-breaking designed to reshape a society's identity and lifestyle.
🎞️ The Global Pattern: A Slippery Slope
Art history shows that breaking taboos is a never-ending line. Once a small taboo is broken, it paves the way for larger, related ones to fall in subsequent years. This is clearly visible in 20th-century cinema.
Early 20th-century cinema was largely respectable, often drawing from the Bible and aiming to guide audiences toward greater humanity (e.g., works by Alice Guy-Blaché, D.W. Griffith).
The shift began with the rise of human-centric, materialist ideologies (both left and right). A landmark moment was the 1933 Czechoslovak film "Ecstasy" (خلسه), directed by Gustav Machatý.
· It was the first major film to explicitly depict sexual acts on screen.
· It featured Jewish actress Hedy Lamarr in full nudity, including scenes of her running naked in a forest and a close-up simulating orgasm.
· Initially banned in the U.S. and elsewhere, it was re-released within seven years as censorship standards changed.
Thus, nudity was one of the first taboos to be slowly, incrementally broken, opening the floodgates for the pornography industry and guiding audiences toward a new "lifestyle."
⚖️ The Reaction: Rating Systems
This staged breaking of red lines eventually forced psychologists and sociologists to react. The demand for filtering content led to the creation of rating systems as a preliminary control mechanism.
The most widespread is the MPAA system (Motion Picture Association of America):
· G (General Audiences): All ages admitted.
· PG (Parental Guidance Suggested): Some material may not be suitable for children.
· PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned): Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13 (introduced in 1984 for intense themes without explicit content).
· R (Restricted): Under 17 requires accompanying parent or guardian. Contains strong language, violence, sex, or drug use.
· NC-17 (Adults Only): No one 17 and under admitted. Clearly explicit sex, extreme violence, etc.
🇮🇷 The Iranian Context: Staged Taboo-Breaking
Cinema in Iran followed a similar path. From its earliest years, attracting audiences was based on the principle of taboo-breaking.
· Before the 1979 Revolution, this was driven by the overt and covert programs of dominant powers.
· After the Revolution, mismanagement by cinematic institutions has, critics argue, led the country's cultural and cinematic conditions toward a state of "cultural promiscuity."
The process is gradual and staged. Breaking one small cultural or religious taboo normalizes the act, creating space to break a larger one later. This systematic erosion is presented as a core strategy for long-term cultural change and identity transformation.
Source: Jewish Studies Center - "Staged Taboo-Breaking in Cinema (Part 1)"
#Cinema #Taboo #Culture #IranianCinema #Hollywood #MPAA #CulturalInfluence #HedyLamarr #Ecstasy
✅ @rahyafte_en
The Hidden General: Ezzatollah Fooladvand and the Intellectual War on the Islamic Revolution
https://jscenter.ir/slave-jews/muslim-zionism/5935
On the occasion of nationwide demonstrations in support of the Islamic Republic against the 2009 sedition (9 Dey 1388/ Dec 30, 2009).
Intellectual wars are fought not with tanks, but with ideas and translations. A key, yet often hidden, figure in this long-term cultural battle within Iran was Ezzatollah Fooladvand. Described by analysts and opposition figures like Akbar Ganji as a "spiritual father of the Green Movement," his weapon was the pen, and his ammunition was Western philosophy.
🎯 The Mission: Building a Theoretical Foundation
Fooladvand operated on a core belief: "Without a 'theory,' we cannot establish the foundations of 'freedom' and 'democracy' in society." From 1979 onwards, with the encouragement of Alireza Heidari Khajehpour, director of Kharazmi Publishing, he embarked on a deliberate project: translating the works of Jewish philosophers and liberal thinkers into Persian.
His goal, as stated by his supporters, was to "teach the elites the way to fight religious authoritarianism." Over three decades, he published 48 works. More than half were books classified in U.S. and European intelligence documents as "white books"—approved resources for spreading capitalist philosophy.
📚 The Arsenal: Translating the Cold War Intellectuals
Fooladvand's translations became the theoretical backbone for a generation of secular-minded intellectuals and reformists. He meticulously translated the works of figures central to the Western liberal canon during the Cold War:
· Hannah Arendt (on revolution and violence)
· Sir Karl Popper (on the "open society")
· Sir Isaiah Berlin (on liberty)
· Raymond Aron
· Václav Havel
These translations were not seen as neutral academic work. Critics like philosopher Reza Davari Ardakani warned at the time that this sudden, competitive rush to publish Popper's "The Open Society and Its Enemies" in Iran smelled of a "political propaganda project against the Islamic Revolution." He compared the praise for Popper in Iran to the rhetoric of Radio Israel.
🔗 Connections and Recognition
Fooladvand's path was paved by pre-revolutionary connections. Educated at Columbia University (a noted hub for cultivating liberal intellectuals), he later worked with the Franklin Institute in Iran, an American-funded publishing house explicitly tasked with "spreading American philosophy and literature."
His work gainedofficial recognition during the reformist era (Khatami's presidency), winning the national Book of the Year award three times. This provided a platform, allowing his ideas to permeate major newspapers like Iran, Hamshahri, and Jam-e Jam.
⚔️ The Impact: Shaping a Movement
The impact was profound. Akbar Ganji credits reading Fooladvand's translations of Hannah Arendt in the early 1980s with a pivotal ideological shift: "I understood what a mistake we had made by making a 'revolution'... Ardent shows that classic, holistic revolutions like the 'Islamic Revolution of Iran'... do not lead you to democracy at all."
Thus,Fooladvand's three-decade project is presented as a successful long-term operation in "ideological subversion." By importing and disseminating a philosophical framework inherently hostile to revolutionary, ideological states, he helped construct the intellectual scaffolding for political movements that sought to fundamentally revise or overthrow the foundations of the Islamic Republic.
He operated not on the front lines, but in the quiet world of academia and publishing—a "small cog in a complex game," yet one that helped turn the wheels of a significant ideological challenge.
Source: Jewish Studies Center - "Ezzatollah Fooladvand, the Jew-ridden, and the Reformists"
Original Source: Payam Fazlinejad, The Secret Army of Intellectuals, Tehran: Kayhan Publications.
#Iran #IntellectualHistory #Translation #ColdWar #Philosophy #GreenMovement #IdeologicalWarfare #CulturalInfluence #Reformists
✅ @rahyafte_en
https://jscenter.ir/slave-jews/muslim-zionism/5935
On the occasion of nationwide demonstrations in support of the Islamic Republic against the 2009 sedition (9 Dey 1388/ Dec 30, 2009).
Intellectual wars are fought not with tanks, but with ideas and translations. A key, yet often hidden, figure in this long-term cultural battle within Iran was Ezzatollah Fooladvand. Described by analysts and opposition figures like Akbar Ganji as a "spiritual father of the Green Movement," his weapon was the pen, and his ammunition was Western philosophy.
🎯 The Mission: Building a Theoretical Foundation
Fooladvand operated on a core belief: "Without a 'theory,' we cannot establish the foundations of 'freedom' and 'democracy' in society." From 1979 onwards, with the encouragement of Alireza Heidari Khajehpour, director of Kharazmi Publishing, he embarked on a deliberate project: translating the works of Jewish philosophers and liberal thinkers into Persian.
His goal, as stated by his supporters, was to "teach the elites the way to fight religious authoritarianism." Over three decades, he published 48 works. More than half were books classified in U.S. and European intelligence documents as "white books"—approved resources for spreading capitalist philosophy.
📚 The Arsenal: Translating the Cold War Intellectuals
Fooladvand's translations became the theoretical backbone for a generation of secular-minded intellectuals and reformists. He meticulously translated the works of figures central to the Western liberal canon during the Cold War:
· Hannah Arendt (on revolution and violence)
· Sir Karl Popper (on the "open society")
· Sir Isaiah Berlin (on liberty)
· Raymond Aron
· Václav Havel
These translations were not seen as neutral academic work. Critics like philosopher Reza Davari Ardakani warned at the time that this sudden, competitive rush to publish Popper's "The Open Society and Its Enemies" in Iran smelled of a "political propaganda project against the Islamic Revolution." He compared the praise for Popper in Iran to the rhetoric of Radio Israel.
🔗 Connections and Recognition
Fooladvand's path was paved by pre-revolutionary connections. Educated at Columbia University (a noted hub for cultivating liberal intellectuals), he later worked with the Franklin Institute in Iran, an American-funded publishing house explicitly tasked with "spreading American philosophy and literature."
His work gainedofficial recognition during the reformist era (Khatami's presidency), winning the national Book of the Year award three times. This provided a platform, allowing his ideas to permeate major newspapers like Iran, Hamshahri, and Jam-e Jam.
⚔️ The Impact: Shaping a Movement
The impact was profound. Akbar Ganji credits reading Fooladvand's translations of Hannah Arendt in the early 1980s with a pivotal ideological shift: "I understood what a mistake we had made by making a 'revolution'... Ardent shows that classic, holistic revolutions like the 'Islamic Revolution of Iran'... do not lead you to democracy at all."
Thus,Fooladvand's three-decade project is presented as a successful long-term operation in "ideological subversion." By importing and disseminating a philosophical framework inherently hostile to revolutionary, ideological states, he helped construct the intellectual scaffolding for political movements that sought to fundamentally revise or overthrow the foundations of the Islamic Republic.
He operated not on the front lines, but in the quiet world of academia and publishing—a "small cog in a complex game," yet one that helped turn the wheels of a significant ideological challenge.
Source: Jewish Studies Center - "Ezzatollah Fooladvand, the Jew-ridden, and the Reformists"
Original Source: Payam Fazlinejad, The Secret Army of Intellectuals, Tehran: Kayhan Publications.
#Iran #IntellectualHistory #Translation #ColdWar #Philosophy #GreenMovement #IdeologicalWarfare #CulturalInfluence #Reformists
✅ @rahyafte_en