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REVISTA IEEE 11

251 Pedro Luis Rubio Terés The iranian elites as perceived from their society and… Partially responsible for turning human beings into reflexive and critical entities, this quality has in recent times been replaced by a neo-positivist philosophy that legitimizes the current status quo. This socio-cultural construction promoted by the political hegemonic power aspires to establishing a society where the homogenized negation of human freedom serves as the bargaining chip for an unreachable future of happiness. Now this leads to a painful realization: the fact that the power structures meant to provide qualitative change to our lives are indeed the source of our discontent. This unification of opposites is consequently left to the individual alone who, overwhelmed by the efficiency and the power of the administration8, is bound to accept the «mechanics of conformity» that serve (at least in theory) for the «pacification of its own existence9». In a theocracy the situation is likely to be worsened by the fact that this future of joy and welfare is only identified with a post mortem meaningful existence. Certainly, if the state oughts to determine the sacrifices we need to endure in order to earn it, then political elites are prone to fuel herewith their private interests. http://revista.ieee.es HABERMAS IN IRAN The sociological approach provided by various scholars on critical theory has not only served to explain the processes undergone by Iran and its people from a revolutionary perspective, but has also played an active role in the processes of change against the governmental conservationism. Perhaps one of the most influential authors among the current intellectuals of the country is Jurgen Habermas, whose later views departing from classic Marxism yielded a less dogmatic alternative to confront religious authoritarianism after the evanescence of the Soviet ideal type10. Following the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, the new Supreme leader Ali Khamenei was appointed and a new president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, came to power. His political formulae of a free market economy and limited space for activism pushed several religious intellectuals with left-wing tendencies out of their positions within 8  The state’s success is to monopolize the machine’s physical power, which certainly outweighs that of any group of individuals therefore becoming «the most effective political instrument in any industrial society». MARCUSE, Herbert. One-dimensional man, Abingdon: Routledge, 1964, p. 6. 9  MARCUSE, H., op. cit., p. 16. 10  The ideas of Habermas were adopted by Iranian intellectuals in a more critical approach than the Western societies they were originally for. See: PAYA, Ali, and GHANEIRAD, Mohammad. «Habermas and Iranian Intellectuals», Iranian Studies, vol. 40 (3), 2007, pp. 305-334. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4311902 2007.

REVISTA IEEE 11
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