The Road to Iranian Exceptionalism

A Plea for a Philosophical Revolution

Dear Iranians,

Thanks to the benevolence and heroism of the Israelis, you now have an unprecedented opportunity to liberate yourselves from the ideas and institutions that have enslaved you for nearly half a century.

Although Israel may end the current Islamic regime in Iran, that alone will not secure your freedom. You are not enslaved merely by a regime. You are enslaved fundamentally by a religion (Islam) and the institutions and policies it supports and demands—such as Islamic law; criminalization of dissent; subjugation of women; indoctrination of youth; execution of apostates, atheists, heretics, and homosexuals.

Granted, not all Iranians embrace Islam. But universal acceptance is not necessary for it to dominate and oppress your society. All that is needed is the lack of a rational alternative.

Like all human beings, you need a worldview to inform and guide your thinking, planning, personal actions, and social institutions. If you don’t embrace a rational worldview—one based on observation and logic—you will default to an irrational one, whether religious (Islam, Christianity, Judaism) or secular (communism, socialism, fascism).

Of course, you could adopt a watered-down version of religion—a version mixed with some elements of reason, as Jews and Christians do when they accept scientific truths that contradict scripture or permit behaviors forbidden by “God.” Likewise, you could accept a diluted form of secular unreason, as socialists and fascists do when they begrudgingly acknowledge the existence of individuals and private property so as to avoid the collapse that accompanies consistency to socialist and fascist tenets. Either of these compromises would be less destructive than full-strength, uncut Islam. And either could move you a step or two closer to freedom and prosperity. 

But why not go all the way? Why not embrace a fully rational world view—and reap the rewards of political liberty, personal flourishing, and social harmony that follow from doing so? Imagine: an Iran that is freer, more prosperous, more confident, more culturally rich than any country on earth.

That could be yours.

Here, in terms of fundamentals, is how you can make it so:

1. Renounce the (literal) nonsense that faith (i.e., acceptance of ideas in the absence of evidence supporting them) is a means of knowledge. Acknowledge that man’s only means of knowledge—your only means of knowledge—is reason, which means: perceptual observation, conceptual integration, and the principle of non-contradiction. If an idea is supported by direct sensory evidence or a chain of non-contradictory reasoning grounded in such evidence, it qualifies as knowledge; if not, it doesn’t. (E.g., you know theocracy leads to barbarity; you don’t know Allah exists). People in the West understand and embrace this principle, if only implicitly and partially; this is why we are relatively successful. You could embrace it explicitly and fully—and surpass our success in spades.

2. Renounce Islam. This is a corollary of renouncing faith. Acknowledge that Islam (like all religions) is irrational and anti-life, and that it morally must be separated from politics, government, and law. If and to the extent faith or “revelation” is permitted into politics, force inexorably follows. If a government can base its policies not on observation and logic, but on revelation or faith, it can use the coercive power of the state in service of any horror imaginable. The Iranian theocracy has used faith in “Allah” and Islam to “justify” censorship, torture, rape, murder, terrorism, and unfathomable cruelty. You know this firsthand; Iran’s history is a blood-soaked trail of evidence.

3. Acknowledge and embrace the moral right of all human beings—including women, homosexuals, and Jews—to live by their own judgment, values, and goals, so long as they don’t violate anyone’s rights. Where does this right come from? It comes from observation and logic: It is the recognition of the fact that in order for human beings to live as human beings—rather than as masters and slaves—each individual must be free to act in accordance with his basic means of living, the judgment of his reasoning mind.

4. Acknowledge and embrace the fact that the only way a person’s rights can be violated is by means of physical force, whether direct (e.g., a gun to the head) or indirect (e.g., a threat to murder one’s family). Physical force used against a person stops him from acting in accordance with the judgment of his mind. This is why the initiation of physical force morally must be outlawed. Every free or semi-free society at least implicitly and partially embraces this principle; that’s the reason for their degree of freedom.

5. Acknowledge and embrace the fact that the only moral purpose of government is to protect individual rights by banning physical force from social relationships—and by using force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate it. A government thus limited enables human beings to live fully as human beings because it leaves them fully free to act in accordance with their basic means of living: the judgment of their minds. And when people are free to use their minds to the fullest, they innovate, create, and excel like never before.

That’s the road to Iranian exceptionalism.

If enough Iranians were to recognize and embrace these principles, you would ignite a revolution unlike any the world has ever seen. Not only a political revolution, but a philosophical revolution—a revolution for human flourishing and the reasoning mind. Iran would become the beacon of civilization. And, most importantly, you, your children, and their children would thrive.