Letters: Theocracy and Its Discontents

Thirty years after the shah was deposed, Iranians are once again divided and polarized. Can their leadership handle the currents of democracy?
Victor Lopez, Seville, Spain

When religion has to be enforced, -policed, or dictated, it has failed and becomes destructive in a way that it was not meant to be. Leaders, like religion, must be a personal choice to truly have meaning.
Tim Devlin, Toronto, Canada

I realize why the events in Iran have been particularly moving for me: they remind me of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, which I also followed closely from afar. But the differences stand out in stark relief as well: there is no conquering (Soviet) army behind the theocracy, and now the Iranian population is so tech-savvy.
Tamas Pick, Budapest, Hungary

People who cannot make their point without resorting to violence and unlawful behavior are not fit for election and are certainly unfit for government. If Mir Hossein Mousavi cannot control his followers, he is not fit for office.
George Blahusiak, Bentley, Australia

Don't Blame the Caveman
I would like to thank science writer Sharon Begley for yet another article that is thoroughly researched, clear, well-argued, and marginally sarcastic. With regard to the evolutionary psychology controversy, I must confess immense relief at seeing science finally confirm what common sense and observation told me long ago: in most modern Western societies and in some non-Western ones, too, it is maladaptive for men to be violent and promiscuous. Which is why fewer and fewer are. Which means that we, as a species, are capable of change and adaptation. Which is, indeed, a great reason to rejoice!
Ana Minasyan, Paris, France

One Nation Under Medicare
Jonathan Alter's reference to Medicare as "the fabulously popular free health insurance" is patently incorrect. All Medicare recipients have $94.60 deducted from their monthly Social Security checks. A couple, therefore, pays $2,270.40 per year for their combined coverage. I will agree it is a "fabulous" bargain, but it is not free.
Cyrus P. Schoen, Sarasota, Fla.

Reagan Was Wrong
Ronald Reagan's crowning glory was to double the size of the federal government and to triple our nation's debt? Not quite the brightest of platforms for our current Republican Party. And yet most Republicans want to be even more Reaganesque. I'll vote for the first candidate who vows to be more Clintonesque, a president who reduced the size of the federal government and who began paying off the legacy to our children, a $10 trillion to $14 trillion Republican debt.
David Dumin, Clemson, S.C.

Jeremy McCarter's essay on Henry Fairlie's criticism of Reagan's conservatism indeed shows that it was dangerously shallow, but NEWSWEEK suffers from being unaware of the equally dangerous shallowness of the kind of widespread liberalism epitomized by Obama. American civilization has been skewered on the intersection of these two patterns of intellectual shallowness and hysteria.
Thomas A. Metzger, Senior Fellow Emeritus, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif.