After analyzing Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's Friday khutbe video carefully, and placing it in the larger context of what is going on in Iran recently, I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Khamenei's true intentions and identity are largely unknown.
To start with the video, Khamenei's observable audience was packed with a decisive group of "male" supporters whose eyes glittered with the kind of mesmer you would see in a movie scene about a drug induced cult meeting. Their bodies rigid, the men's eyes glued on the supreme "divine interpreter of the truth," they responded like well trained soldiers guised in civilian attire. And when the moment for the famous "Death to America, Britain, and the West" chant came, the "soldiers" (or the drones?) lifted their right hands up and bellowed out in perfect unison that could only be achieved with previous training. I have no doubt that the Khamenei's auidence knew what they were supposed to do and say, before the Friday's khutbe.
The chant, for example, "Death to America, West, etc.," is so automatized, it almost sounds like a thousands of electronic phone messages tied up to the city megaphon, selling insurance, all at once. I'll never forget reading about the memories of an American journalist who accidentally found himself stuck in the middle of a "death to America" protest, in Tehran, during the hostage crisis. While he was whispering his last rites to himself, convinced that these were his last moments on earth, one of the furry faced angry chanters noticed him. "Are you an American?," he asked. "Yes," replied the reporter, hoping that he would die quickly. "Oh, I love American movie stars, especially John Wayne" was the response he got...and a handshake before the chanter moved on yelling "death to America," leaving the bewildered journalist behind, slack jawed.
To me, there is a psychological manipulation going on in Iran. And the manipulators know their art quite well. I cannot be hundred percent sure and I am by no means an expert of such arts, I do have some insights and hunches explaining the methods of such manipulations, alongside helping me to notice them. First of all, the "death to America" chant is a "false unification" tool of manipulation that has, two simultaneous purposes covering the manipulation of both, the people of Iran and the West. A)It (falsely) unifies the gullible and isolated sections of Iran who have limited knowledge of the world, etc. These people are made into sheep easily because they are less educated and more religious. How does the chant unify? By offering them a "foreign" scapegoat "enemy of religion" who is threatning "them." B)The "death to America" chant also serves as the false "unifier" of some people of the West who are again, isolated, ignorant and xenophobic about the Iranians who they see as a "foreign threat." This way with one chant, the manipulators kill two birds. Similarly, the "Great Satan" of Iran is no different than George Bush's "Axis of Evil," both having been manifactured by the experts of the same art and the artisans. And who falls for the "Axis of Evil," here in the West? Same type of people who falls for the "Great Satan" in the East. Only the locations,costumes, skin colors, languages, titles, identities and definitions change (which are mostly the cosmetics of humanity), the art and the artisans however, stay the same (albeit hidden behind the curtains).
What gives now? All of that was supposed to keep the world under a spell but something seems to have diffused these well packaged images, recently, thanks to the tech-saviness of the Iran's new generation. The world have been watching another "image" of Iran which is shockingly different than the "savage mulla and his angry bearded chanting drones of the doom" version. This image of Iran has "normal human beings" in it. What a shocker!!! Iranians are also human beings that we can relate to? Yeah I am being sarcastic here but you would be surprised about the numbers of people in the West who think otherwise. In these world changing historical images, streaming out of the country day and night, we see good looking young girls and boys and men and women and children and they are dressed well and that they are brave like our revolutionary ancestors, and they don't yell "death to America" as if someone winds the switch on their back. What's more? They are ready to give up their lives for the same values and ideals that was behind our own founding. Wow!!! The usual humdrum of the old "they are not like us" claim falls flat in these authentic images we have been watching all week long. These images then, must have threatened the work of the artisans of manipulation who have been working so hard and long to create the other manifactured "Savage mullah and his angry bearded chanting beasts" version in the Western minds for so long. So, no I'm not surprised at all about Khamenei's "Friday hutbe video" attempting to counter/erase the other (new) image of Iran, the human beings like "us," from the minds of the people. I think he is too late, though. The cat is out of the bag and the world now knows that Iranians, although not perfect, are also human beings just like us, struggling against the same demons. The image of the Iran as "the beastly doomsday enemy of the Western civilization that cannot be interacted by peacefull means thus must be bombed into oblivion to keep the West safe " is no more.
To tell the truth, what exactly is Khamenei's personal role in this ongoing bloody charade played on the weak of Iran, and the West, I don't know, but I think it is a question that should be asked. Does he know what is going on or is he among the innocent clueless manipulated ones? He could be manipulated but, somehow, I doubt that. The following questions then should be asked and further explored by all who really cares for the world peace.
-Whose side Khamenei is on, really? (he could not have ignored thousands of Iranians' sincere calling and brave protests so callously, as he did on Friday, if he really was this supreme leader of Iran, a man faithful to the people of Iran and God. His actions to me are serving to the interests of Iran's enemies, not Iran's. Big question mark here)
-Who is Khamenei really serving to? Doesn't seem to be Iranian people.
-Who is giving him his marching orders? To whom are his loyalties?
Time to figure these things out...