Trump may keep some Iranians and Middle Easterners aligned with his imperialistic agenda. But his deceitful and neoliberal policies have inevitably created a powerful opposing force grounded in humanist values, resisting Trump and his ilk from freely fascistizing the earth.
In Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Zarathustra tried to teach the people of the town about the overman while they were distracted by a tightrope walker’s performance — they did not listen. Yet, he did not give up. Instead, he used the scene as a powerful example to explain the overman’s ultimate responsibility. He told them that to truly become an overman, they must cross the rope that spanned from themselves to him. He described it as “a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping.” To cross it, one must find the courage to question one’s happiness, inherited ideas of “good” and “evil,” and an assumptive world constructed from everything absorbed uncritically since childhood (Eller, 2024).
As Iranians, we have undertaken this process many times — from the constitutional attempts in 1905 to today’s calls for democratic change. This ongoing journey is marked by setbacks, among which the most damaging are figures like Donald Trump — the jester. These jesters mock the tightrope walkers and shout for them to retreat to their towers, locked away safely. They work tirelessly to discourage the oppressed from making that vital crossing. They even confront overmen: “Go away from this town, Zarathustra. There are too many here who hate you. You are despised by the good and the just, called their enemy and a scorner; hated by believers in the true faith (Nietzsche, 1966: 21).”
Unfortunately, some Iranians have long framed their struggle against imperialism around mere opposition. To oppose is one thing; to have nothing beyond opposition is quite another. In fact, these anti-imperialists, often unknowingly, pave the way for new forms of imperialism through their limited resistance. Their strategies tend to be reactionary rather than revolutionary — as if they are, paradoxically, employing imperialist logic in their very attempts to fight imperialism.
Indeed, jesters claim to be “believers in the true faith,” but Trump’s religion is capitalism. Like Plainview in There Will Be Blood, he feeds his insatiable greed by putting his straw into others’ oilshakes, drinking them dry. Such believers are unashamed, as evidenced years after conspiring to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddeq for his attempt to nationalize Iran’s oil. Now trapped in dangerous delusions, Trump — the jester — wants to “make Iran great again.”
With the help of his fascist ally, Netanyahu, he believes the time is ripe for regime change in Iran. Many Iranians are indeed weary of political Islam — their currency weak, environment fragile, electricity cut off for hours during scorching summers, and tragic losses from past movements haunting their struggles. These hardships have driven some to desperation, mistakenly seeing bombing and foreign intervention as salvation, and looking to Trump as their savior. Yet many others see through his clownish caricature and recognize the same old imperialist plan cloaked in a new guise — the plan to make imperialism great again (MIGA).
Trapped in their assumptive world and, in Nietzsche’s words, wrapped in their mummified values, some Iranians hold a nostalgic view of the past and see Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah, as the only leader capable of helping them cross the rope. Yet many have not forgotten Pahlavi’s immature approach to democracy. Far from hiding it, he reveals an undemocratic and imperialistic character — a legacy inherited from his father.
Situated between two seas and on a sea of oil, Iran is a prized oilshake for capitalists — an abundant resource they eagerly dip their straws into. This has made Iranians seasoned fighters against imperialism. Yet within this struggle, perspectives are divided. One group, knowingly or unknowingly, advocates for neoliberal policies that were tentatively introduced into Iran’s economy by the late President Hashemi Rafsanjani around 1989. Iranians who fall for this neoliberal fantasy are often drawn to the glamorous lives of Western celebrities. It is only natural that luxury becomes a coveted dream for individuals who see modern life from afar but cannot access it in reality.
For critical Iranians, however, the story is quite different. Among them, for example, are those who have lost their lives while voluntarily fighting the wildfires that engulfed the country’s western forests. They vehemently condemn Israel’s ongoing genocide — both from a human rights perspective and an environmental one. On the environmental front, they understand all too well that the fires of war warm the region and threaten the future of human life. These individuals also recognize how the religion of capitalism sanctifies consumerism, individualism, entrepreneurialism, and other such “-isms” in the service of imperialism.
Trump, the jester, is a war enthusiast who speaks of conflict as if it were a childish game. In response, great Iranian thinkers call on the people to resist violence with nonviolent means. They understand well that Trump seeks to spread chaos by virtue of violence and then fish in troubled waters. It is a profound act of humanity to refuse revenge, even when loved ones — children and adults alike — have been bombed, dismembered, or shot in the head.
Yet we must avoid an idealistic view of Iran’s future. While a democratic society is our fundamental right, it is also likely that Iran, if it transitions to democracy, could embrace neoliberalism even more deeply than before. Some Iranians believe that the real struggle will begin at that point — when democracy itself becomes a battleground for competing visions of society.
Will Trump’s MIGA plan be fulfilled? Both yes and no. The one certainty is that the long-standing revolution against neoliberalism (Apple, 2016) is alive in Iran. Trump is a 19th-century robber baron —obsessed with amassing wealth and power, always playing the game of ruthless competition and personal gain. What sets him apart is how he cloaks this greed in a performance of religious fervor, as if he were some kind of savior sent to fix everything.
In reality, it is mostly smoke and mirrors. For Trump, “(gold or paper) money, wealth, and commodities are some of the divinities, the idols of the capitalist religion” (Löwy, 2009: 63). This understanding reflects a widespread Iranian critique of Trump’s capitalist-driven policies. While Trump may keep some Iranians and Middle Easterners aligned with his imperialistic agenda, his deceitful and neoliberal policies inevitably create a powerful opposing force — one grounded in humanist values that will never allow Trump and his ilk to freely fascistize the earth.
A subtle but important point must be made here. Unfortunately, some Iranians have long framed their struggle against imperialism around mere opposition. To oppose is one thing; to have nothing beyond opposition is quite another. In fact, these anti-imperialists, often unknowingly, pave the way for new forms of imperialism through their limited resistance. Their strategies tend to be reactionary rather than revolutionary — as if they are, paradoxically, employing imperialist logic in their very attempts to fight imperialism.
This is partly inevitable for every revolution, but revolutionary action must bring about, as Freire (2000) taught us, new words to name the world. It is necessary to learn the language of neoliberalism, but it is ineffective to respond in the same language. Fascist-neoliberal ideas are fluid, seeping into every corner of the world. They flow smoothly from the jesters’ mouths and run into old assumptive worlds, keeping them alive. I would like to close with Nietzsche’s Zarathustra to point toward the solution:
Verily, a polluted stream is man. One must be a sea to be able to receive a polluted stream without becoming unclean. Behold, I teach you the overman: he is the sea.
References:
Apple, M. W. (2016). Challenging the epistemological fog: The roles of the scholar/activist in education. European Educational Research Journal, 15(5), 505-515.
Eller, D. (2024). Liberatheism: On Freedom from God (s). Denver: GCRR Press.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Löwy, M. (2009). Capitalism as Religion: Walter Benjamin and Max Weber. Historical Materialism, 17(1), 60-73.
Nietzsche, F. (1966). Thus Spoke Zarathustra. New York: The Viking Press.
Image Credit: “President Trump signs an Executive Order sanctioning Iran” (June 24, 2019), Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian (U.S. federal government, public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
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