Julie Burchill: Be careful what you wish for, armchair revolutionaries

Julie Burchill writes:

During a long hard winter, nothing warms the cold blood of the Western armchair revolutionary more than the sight of a bunch of attractive dark-skinned people out on the streets having a right old revolution (…)

It’s hard to believe now, but I recall being 19 and delighted when the Iranian Revolution happened. As a good Communist kiddy, I’d grown up with my dad’s fairly accurate horror stories of how SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police, burned the arms off of opponents, leaving them as “human snakes”. I remember how disgusted I was when Andy Warhol said “It bothers me that people are being tortured in Persia – but the Empress is a personal friend” as an excuse for hanging out with the Pahlavi family.

And now look at Iran…