American university protests and Foucault's reflections on Iran

The sit-ins within university courtyards and gardens were ignited by the testimony of Columbia University's president before a congressional committee.

She criticised slogans adopted by some students and faculty, which the committee members viewed as incitements to harm Jews and as expressions of anti-Semitism.

These actions provide fodder for the American extreme right and staunch supporters of Israel, as the protests are perceived as part of what is commonly referred to in the US as "cancel culture" and "Woke" ideology, typically associated with the left.

The extreme right accuses the "woke" left of undermining American values and society by aligning with immigrants and various ethnic and religious minorities, including Arabs, Muslims, Blacks, and others.

However, our primary interest does not lie here; rather, it is in the manipulation and political machinations that become the battleground.

To understand similar instances of student activism, we can revisit historical precedents such as the May 1968 protests in French universities, which led to President Charles de Gaulle's resignation but left the political structure unchanged.

Another instance is the student demonstrations in Lebanon during the early 1970s, which foreshadowed the subsequent civil war.

Similarly, French philosopher Michel Foucault extolled the Iranian revolution, presenting it as a break from the Western tradition of interpreting social movements through purely economic or nationalist lenses.

The author of History of Madness argued that resistance to the Shah's regime embodied a "political spirituality" that empowered millions of Iranians to confront oppression and injustice.

Foucault provided extensive commentary and interpretations of these events, and he lived long enough to witness how this "political spirituality" eventually pursued its adherents—executing, imprisoning, or exiling them.

In fact, the belief that spiritual motivations, as Michel Foucault—who visited Iran twice—argued, could transform into tangible political influence within the Iranian clergy, reflecting the deep-seated desires of the majority who opposed the Shah, resembles the hopeful assumption that a few thousand American university students can sway the Joe Biden administration's stance on Israel.

This comes shortly after US forces intervened by shooting down drones and missiles Iran launched towards Israel.

In other words, extolling the "courage" of student sit-ins and demonstrations at institutions like Columbia and Yale, which challenge both the academic and broader political "establishment" and its extensive influence, overlooks two crucial aspects.

Firstly, it lacks a clear understanding of the potential impact such movements could have on the conflict in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Secondly, it fails to address how these movements might be leveraged within American partisan politics amid the growing and increasingly radical polarization of right and left ideologies within the US political landscape.

Michel Foucault, a leading thinker and philosopher of the 20th century in Europe, was far from naive.

However, as many of his readers and followers noted, his views on the Iranian revolution seemed to reflect his personal desire to see the overthrow of the prevailing ideologies of his era, much as he sought to challenge established norms through his writings.

Similarly, high expectations are often prematurely set on movements that merit more careful consideration before they are heralded with enthusiasm.