Six Self-Destructive Trends in Iranian Society

Destructive is not the only adjective that can be applied to the policies and decisions of the government and the Islamic Republic; Iranian society is also fully engaged in this destructive process and contributes to it. Many Iranian citizens, with a government-centric view (believing that the government should fix everything or is responsible for all problems and ugliness), forget their own responsibilities and actively participate in destructive processes. The author's intention in this article is not to blame the victims but to explore the conditions and find areas of responsibility. Even in completely authoritarian and totalitarian systems, the moral and legal responsibility of citizens is not eliminated. I will refer to six areas: environment, nutrition, higher education, conflict resolution, transportation, and substance abuse. In all six realms, in addition to the government's destructive role in neglecting its duties, the role of citizens in forgetting their responsibilities is also evident. Environment: The government's policies regarding water, forests, soil, and air have all led to further destruction of the environment for the people and other living beings in Iran. Environmental experts in Iran agree on all these issues. However, the people of Iran are not merely passive observers in this matter. They also have a significant share in this pollution and destruction. The intense desire for personal vehicles even in large cities despite public transportation (the amount of gasoline consumption tripled from 35 million liters per day in 1997 to 105 million liters per day in 2016), littering anywhere possible, hunting wild animals for recreation, destroying green spaces, public indifference to recycling, excessive use of the country's fuel resources, and using resources at the level of standards of societies with fewer shortages are examples of this negative role. The extent of this destruction is such that the head of the Environmental Committee of the Tehran City Council describes the city as on the verge of death. (ILNA, April 8, 2016) Unhealthy Nutrition: In the field of nutrition, each Iranian consumes twice the global average of salt, twice the global average of oil, four times the global average of soda, and six times the global average of sugar and bread, while their milk consumption is one-third of the global average (IRNA, February 29, 2016). In developed countries, people who consume ready-made food have high intakes of salt, sugar, and oil, but they have access to milk and vegetables, and if they do not consume them, it is their own choice. However, in Iran, dairy products and fruits are very expensive, and about 70% of households cannot afford sufficient milk, vegetables, and fruits. Even those who can afford it pay little attention to their nutrition. For instance, in election campaigns in Iran, not a single word is mentioned about nutrition problems. If people were sensitive to this issue, candidates could not completely ignore it. Alongside the community's indifference or negligence towards healthy nutrition, the government also takes no action in this area. Credentialism: In the realm of work and activity, about 40 million people in Iran are economically inactive. Among these inactive individuals, 6.8 million are university graduates, and 730,000 hold master's and doctoral degrees. (Ministry of Labor report, Mehr, February 29, 2016) Credentialism has led to this massive number of unemployed graduates, the quality of whose education and the purpose of which are unclear. The government has welcomed the blind thirst of society for credentials, and state universities have filled their pockets in this regard. The Free University today is one of the wealthiest educational institutions in Iran, while its graduates have a smaller share of the job market compared to state universities. State, non-profit, and private universities in Iran have turned into degree factories with no responsibility for education within the framework of the country's needs, and society has become addicted to purchasing their often useless products without considering this problem. Constant Conflict: In the realm of coexistence, Iranians are constantly engaged in conflict and disputes with one another. One out of every two Iranians annually deals with the police. Referring 15 million people to police stations for complaints in the first 11 months of 2015 (Head of the NAJA Prevention Police, Alef, March 10, 2016), which, when considering the parties involved and extending the statistics to the entire year, amounts to about 33 million out of 66 million Iranians over the age of 15, indicates this social crisis. Society has abandoned traditional methods of preventing and resolving disputes and has not adapted to modern methods (such as contract signing and adherence to it and referring to mutually agreed arbitrators). Instead of delegating conflict resolution to civil institutions and elected representatives, the government has opted to expand its own power (in this matter, the judiciary). Road Fatalities: According to the chairman of the Road Safety Advocates Society in 2013, there were 18,000 deaths and 310,000 injuries due to road accidents. (ISNA, November 16, 2014) The death toll in 2014 reached 17,000. (Tabnak, March 5, 2016) According to the head of the Research Center of the Medical Legal Organization, between 2003 and 2013, 235,050 people died from traffic accidents in the country, and 2,221,000 were injured. (Ebtekar, November 23, 2014) This ten-year statistic is much more than twice the number of deaths and injuries from the eight-year war with Iraq. In just the first nine days of 2016, 300 people were killed on the roads. Poor road safety and capacity, insufficient warning signs, low quality of domestically manufactured vehicles, poor driver training (lack of periodic training for defensive driving), and other factors for which the government is responsible play a role in this mass killing, but we should not overlook the role of drivers and the poor decisions they make and the regulations they violate. A responsible citizen, despite all the problems, can reduce risks and save more lives. The responsibility for speeding or illegal overtaking is no longer the government's, although the government can be blamed for the lack of investment in building wider roads to modern standards. Substance Abuse: According to official statistics, there are about 130,000 alcohol addicts (one million consumers), 1.5 to 3 million drug addicts (7 to 10 million consumers), and 8.5 to 10 million cigarette addicts (20 million consumers) in Iran. The government does almost nothing to prevent the increase of these figures except for executing and imprisoning a very small number of members of the drug mafia and whipping alcohol consumers. However, citizens also spare no effort in destroying their own bodies and minds and harming the health of society. The age of drug and cigarette consumption has decreased in society. The share of women among consumers has increased. Additionally, access to drugs has become much easier. Consumers and distributors, who are ordinary citizens, share in this massive destruction alongside the government's cultural, social, and economic policies, and they cannot be absolved of responsibility simply by labeling the addict as sick or the distributor as unemployed. Each of the above trends and conditions causes enormous financial and human losses to society. In a situation where the government focuses on waste, corruption, favoritism, and expansionism in the Middle East, Iranian citizens can, individually or collectively and organized (in civil institutions), reduce these damages as much as they can.