The Loss of Aunt Parvin

It has been 48 years. Now, in 1405, we have reached a point where we must find Aunt Pari again. This time, not to save the lunch table from politics, but to save politics from the lunch table.

Guest note, Koresh Aliani, cultural activist: Remember the first years of the revolution. Politics was everywhere. In the taxi, bus, office, school, university, party, and even at the Friday lunch table. Everyone was talking about Iran and the world. Everyone wanted to clarify the task of imperialism, capitalism, communism, NATO, OPEC, and the future of humanity. Everyone had a message for everyone and especially for the whole world. The arguments sometimes got so heated that one forgot that we were gathered for a Friday family lunch, not to attend the Non-Aligned Summit.

Arguments lasting several hours and loud and long shouts and shaking heads and hands and labeling and making each discussion more complicated were the result of this strange social restlessness of those years.

In such a time, a dear person lived. A common woman whom I give the fictitious name of Aunt Perry. Aunt Perry wanted the family to gather at her house on Friday afternoons, eat, peel fruit, tell jokes, share memories, and enjoy seeing each other. He used to tell his guests to leave solving all the problems of Iran and the world for later while you are here. You are not going to solve the problems of OPEC or find the final ways to deal with NATO at my table.

Aunt Perry was common in appearance but wise in action. You understand that everything has a place. He knew that political discussion was not going to take the place of family socializing, just as so-and-so would not become a great political speaker for aunts and uncles and aunts and uncles. He knew that these things called society and politics should not occupy each other's place.

48 years have passed. Now, in 1405, we have reached the point where we have to find Aunt Perry again. This time, not to save the lunch table from politics, but to save politics from the lunch table.

In the media, in the decision-making rooms of the private sector, and even if they can reach it, in some government departments, there are those who examine the issues of Iran and the world with the same logic of a Friday afternoon party. They describe a memory, they say a joke, they generalize a limited personal experience to the whole world, they like something - unfortunately usually themselves and their glorious history of brilliant performance - they like something, they dislike something, and the result of this collection is called analysis. Then, based on these analyses, they recommend, make decisions, and sometimes assign tasks to millions of people. It is not as if analysis requires information, knowledge, method, reasoning, and measurement.

Aunt Perry must return. He should enter these rooms, knock hard on the table and say, "Gentlemen! Ladies! This is not my home. You are not sitting here at the Friday lunch table. Peel your fruit later. Tell your joke somewhere else. Save your memories for the party. Throw away the rumors. Here you are supposed to think, understand and decide."

48 years ago, Khalejun Perry stood up to not ruin the politics of human association. Today, one should not let rumors of old-fashioned parties ruin politics. Of course, Aunt Pari's old guests understood the human side of national and global issues, but they don't understand the scientific side of analysis far from rumors.