From Sophie's front desk — Sunday, July 12
BBC News — read the full story
A burial in Mashhad ended six days of public mourning—Ali Khamenei laid to rest at the holiest shrine in Shia Islam. BBC reported it; what matters is succession: Iran's next leader inherits the nuclear question and every regional conflict left unresolved. Epictetus has the first word on what lies in our control, then Seneca.
In a theocracy, the crowds gather for two reasons at once: the genuine loss is real, and the state needs witnesses. At Nicopolis, I taught students about impressions — the difference between what appears and what is. A crowd mourning a leader looks unified; the reality inside it is fragmented.
Some grieve genuinely. Some perform. Some serve the state.
Some protect themselves. All visible as one body. Iran just buried its supreme leader and certified his successor with half a million people as the notaries.
The real question is whether the state needed them to come so that tomorrow's hard decisions would look inevitable.
to happen now? The cab is stopping.” Then aloud he asked: “The cab stops; is this the city of the dead?” “No, your Reverence,” said Leo Leander, “this is not the necropolis. However, I will leave you here and join you in a few moments at the Motuble tomb. Here is the key to the t…
that the fulfillment of his prophecies could be manifested, before making a decision for or against the Governor’s name being used in the present presidential campaign as a candidate for the office. The public fumed and growled at the delay; yet it was the inevitable, and there w…
matter to die rather many years after, than the very next day. XXXIX. Let it be thy perpetual meditation, how many physicians who once looked so grim, and so theatrically shrunk their brows upon their patients, are dead and gone themselves. How many astrologers, after that in gre…
modesty? Which of all those, either becomes good or fair, because commended; or dispraised suffers any damage? Doth the emerald become worse in itself, or more vile if it be not commended? Doth gold, or ivory, or purple? Is there anything that doth though never so common, as a kn…
48. Constantly consider how many physicians are dead and gone, who frequently knitted their brows over their patients; how many astrologers, who foretold the deaths of others with great ostentation of their art; how many philosophers, who wrote endlessly on death and immortality;…
I know this funeral. The crowds are real. The mourning is real. But they are separate from the machinery that chose the next leader months ago.
When I was exiled to Corsica, Rome did not pause. The Senate continued. My students found new teachers. The state produced what it needed and moved on.
When I was recalled, it was not because the apparatus had been waiting — it was because the system had room for me again. The crowds at any gate are theater; the machinery is what happens in the rooms where crowds are not allowed. Iran's next leader was chosen long before this funeral began. What you are watching is not succession; it is performance.
The successor inherits a machine built by someone else, and must make it run as if it is his own design, or let it break.
matter to die rather many years after, than the very next day. XXXIX. Let it be thy perpetual meditation, how many physicians who once looked so grim, and so theatrically shrunk their brows upon their patients, are dead and gone themselves. How many astrologers, after that in gre…
modesty? Which of all those, either becomes good or fair, because commended; or dispraised suffers any damage? Doth the emerald become worse in itself, or more vile if it be not commended? Doth gold, or ivory, or purple? Is there anything that doth though never so common, as a kn…
48. Constantly consider how many physicians are dead and gone, who frequently knitted their brows over their patients; how many astrologers, who foretold the deaths of others with great ostentation of their art; how many philosophers, who wrote endlessly on death and immortality;…
inconsiderately and without understanding. For, even the smallest things should be referred to the end, and the end of rational beings is to follow the order and law of the venerable state and polity which comprehends them all. 17. The duration of man's life is but an instant; hi…
peace and security? He would not have recognized the good which he had himself bestowed, and would hardly have believed, when he looked back upon himself, that so great a man could have been born in his house. Why should I go on to speak of others who would now be forgotten, if t…
The story ran in BBC News. The mourning was genuine; the state's need for witnesses was equally so. That's Old News for today.