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Symbolic Narratives and the Return of Symbols

I look through English-language tweets. One asks its audience: perhaps you have not noticed this, but the phrase “Operation Rising Lion” is a reference to the Lion and Sun flag and at the same time to the lion as a symbol of Israel; the choice, it says, is not accidental.

This, according to the post, is supposed to mark the beginning of a historical friendship and alliance rooted in history. History returns.

It then spoke of the possibility of a prince belonging to both lineages. The replies were full of emotional comments from people of different nations who wanted to see some possibility beyond war.

An Iranian also reminded others that Iranians had saved Jews twice: once when Cyrus freed them from Babylon and rebuilt the Temple of Solomon, and again during the Second World War when, according to the comment, the people of Iran received them as guests. Now, the commenter said, it was their turn to repay this historical debt and save Iranians.

Under the same post was another tweet from a MAGA and Trump supporter: “We must stand with Israel and send Iran back to the Stone Age, where it belongs.”

Beneath that post, Israeli, Indian, and American supporters offered uninterrupted congratulations on the alliance.

Our Children and Anxiety

The school calls to say my son is having an anxiety attack. I pick him up from school.

In his fourteen years of life, he has seen Iran only a few times and for short periods. He says: “I’m worried about Grandma and Grandpa.”

He means my parents, who have not left Tehran. He says: “Can I send them my savings? I read on TikTok that there is no money in the banks. Maybe with this money they can get themselves to the Turkish border.”

I hold him. He does not know that their problem is not money. The last time I spoke with them they simply said there was no petrol to leave, and they had no desire to leave either. They were certain that they wanted to stay.

My son could not understand their choice and asked that we call them. They did not answer. Probably there was no internet. We talked the entire way home. When we arrived, he returned my embrace.

Confronting Prejudices and Anger

I say goodbye to him, and the first patient on my list is an Australian man whose family and who himself have been my patients for nearly ten years.

He asks how I am, then asks after my relatives and family. Then, as though wanting to speak about something personal and important, in a softer voice, as though no one else should hear, he says:

“To be honest, there is one thing I’m glad about. Iranians have been given a taste of their own medicine. Their ego and arrogance have been broken. I hope it continues long enough that they come humbly and ask for negotiations, and next time they attack somewhere they will think twice.”

I thought about the end of the war and what would come afterward. At the same moment, images of the 1980s and the ruins of Gaza and Beirut came to mind. His world is simple. He will never understand the complexities of my country.

Truth, Choice, and Our Evolutionary Fear

I thought about his pleasure at “their big ego being broken.” I look within myself to see how much I too feel the same thing. When a residential tower collapses and a compatriot shouts, “an eye for an eye, blood for blood,” which feeling do I experience first? Which “I” within me has the upper hand?

I look at the collection of my feelings. I remember the horror with which I watched people handing out sweets after 7 October. I could not understand how they could fail to see what was coming.

We human beings possess dangerous emotions, full of certainty and contradiction, pulling us in every direction.

It is said that when troops of chimpanzees attack one another, they tear one another apart.

I know that beneath the skin of our fragile rationality, the same genetic codes remain powerfully active.

Each of us can overcome millions of years of instinct, evolutionary fear, and tribal anger only to a certain extent.