The Rise of Synthetic Ideology

In 1964, the first compact cassette recorder was launched in the United States. For the first time, anyone could record music or voice, at home, using a small and inexpensive device. Unlike earlier cassettes, the “compact” was small enough to fit in one’s pocket. It went on to dominate the music industry for three decades.

Also in 1964, the cleric Ruhollah Khomeini was forcibly exiled from Iran for instigating riots and undermining the Shah. Khomeini settled in Najaf, a city in neighboring Iraq, and, later, in a suburb outside Paris, France. The cleric could no longer preach directly to his disciples. But he could record his sermons.

Pilgrims and visitors took Khomeini’s cassettes back into Iran. In some cases, recordings were played over the telephone and recorded by local operatives. While Khomeini was in France, 90,000 mosques inside Iran were duplicating and distributing his tapes, reaching millions of people. Within hours, Khomeini’s ideas and instructions reached people on the other side of the world, initiating strikes, instigating riots, and ultimately toppling the Shah. When Khomeini flew back to Iran in 1979, the country was already his. He and his disciples have dominated it ever since. (Bin Laden, too, used cassettes to reach, recruit, and direct disciples)

 
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