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It is a short-sighted approach to analyze #paramilitarism & #IRGC only via policy, military activities and its leadership. There is a machinery that produces lifestyle, philosophy, ideation around #Suleimani, #Resistance and armed action.
An Iranian national daily published 'the answer of Suleimani to the Question of Will Durant.
https://www.mashreghnews.ir/news/1163074/ پاسخ-حاج-قاسم-به-پرسش-ویل-دورانت
https://www.mashreghnews.ir/news/1163074/ پاسخ-حاج-قاسم-به-پرسش-ویل-دورانت
The propaganda machinery expands itself into every aspect of life to reconfigure notions of life through the lens of #Suleimani as a heroic symbol. This machinery addresses Iranians from an early age (this was released today)
The children are gifted a notebook with Suleimani's picture & asked what do they know about him, how they feel about him & what they would like to tell him. It is interesting there is very little religiosity in these images but a lot of nationalism.
IRCG's machinery is framing itself into national imaginaries and Iran's future. It repeats Khomeini's technique who saw with the foresight to his soldiers 'in the cribs' when he was exiled in 1964 and he waited till they matured for his cause.
The memory machine never sleeps. Khamenei rarely approves of books he has not read but he says this new book can highlight the ‘dear’ martyr Suleimani.
Shir Ali-nia: a critical war historian of Iran-Iraq war suggests Suleimani criticised the memory machine for stripping away history & lived experience from fallen combatants. Now, Iranian media inflicting same destiny on him.
The memory machine is incessant & operates with foresight, however, it is not a fully well-oiled machine. Competing bureaucrats made the mockery out of #Suleimani's memorial sculpture. Hence, it is to ask why & how the memory machine continues to operate? https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran-features-55521477
The memory machine expands itself into an international network of resistance, not necessarily an Islamic one. It could be 'justice' oriented too. Evo Morales, fr Bolivian president sees #Suleimani aligned with the cause of indigenous against colonialism https://twitter.com/evoespueblo/status/1345681394664615943?s=20
Militant Mythologies are like Speculative Fictions, they are fed by political events and generate meanings for some form realities that it makes sense only their own group's imaginaries. https://twitter.com/IraqLiveUpdate/status/1346953240584347654?s=20
#Suleimani is reproduced to echo the discourses of martyrdom like martyrs of Iran-Iraq war. However, his image is more embedded in the international network of militancy in comparison with the earlier 'representations'. Suleimani is the refurbished Chamran or Motovaselian
New clip in commemoration of #Suleimani #Soleimani by an off-shoot of the Iranian memory machine. It borrows metaphors from classical Farsi poetry mixed with nationalism. Suleimani is presented in a 'secularized' national mystical scale to keep him a palatable hero for everyone.
An interesting thread by @HamdiAMalik who sharply observes how personalities are constructed by hero-making machinery. He shows the person should fit the persona. https://twitter.com/hamdiamalik/status/1348375394932711424
