.. it also highlights the relative naivete - nay, ignorance - of many in the West for just how close we live to despotism, tyranny and corruption in our own sph

.. it also highlights the relative naivete - nay, ignorance - of many in the West for just how close we live to despotism, tyranny and corruption in our own sphere, and - more importantly - just how rapidly these failings can be exploited by institutions with nefarious intentions. We in the West have got to stop it with the moral superiority/manifest destiny, and start taking a good look at what it is we're doing to make the future worse, not better. If Iran can point it out, we most certainly can see it for ourselves - but of course we have to get past the superiority hubris which disallows any honest discourse on the subject of how our 'superior' technological societies are actually enslaving us all, not making us better. Case in point - so far in this thread, nobody has had the temerity to point out that Western hubris is the real enemy here.