3 - The Specter of Westernism

Summary

This chapter proposes that the thought-practice of hidden liberalism is chiefly necessitated by a set of binary grievances against “Westernism” – i.e. reformist temptations brought on by Western modernity (e.g. materialism, secularism, individualism, capitalism, etc., which many of its detractors regarded liberalism as being complicit in. In light of the troubling history of Western “liberal imperialism” in the domestic and regional politics of Iran, there is a long tradition of anti-liberal thought that faults liberalism as not sufficiently emancipatory in the face of imperial exploitation, or adequately protective of traditional values indigenous to Iranian society. This chapter surveys the range of opinions and schools of thought within this anti-liberal cohort in parallel to the background political developments that either precipitated or were caused by such views. It concludes by examining the relationship between this persistent anti-liberalism and the advent of the Islamic Republic.