Plans of World Domination
1979, Derby, Connecticut
By Karen Lee
Years ago, I had a part-time job editing and reporting news. Typically, I’d get the news from various wire services, then piece together a few short daytime broadcasts and two longer segments for morning and evening “drive time.”
During this period my husband and I were remodeling the kitchen and thought it would be charming to add a fireplace. I saw an ad in the local paper, placed by a recent Yale architecture grad who was looking for jobs - “none too small.” I called.
The fellow who placed the ad came by and gave me an estimate. He seemed very nice. His name was Mohammed, he was from Iran, he was married to an American, and he had just become a father to a beautiful baby girl.
His estimate seemed within our means. I made tea. We talked design and I asked when he could begin. He said in about two weeks, unless he went back to Iran.
He explained that he really liked many Americans and Westerners personally (after all, he married one), but our culture was immoral and had corrupted Iran’s traditional way of life via Western money and influence by the Shah, who promoted tolerance of Western ways and had “denegrated the influence of pious men.”
“So,” he continued, “some of my friends are planning to take over the US embassy and overthrow the Shah.” He said he was in the process of deciding whether he’d join them. He explained that if he went back home to join the revolution, he wouldn’t be around to build the fireplace.
Me, the news editor, said, “Well, I remember in the ’60s, we took over the dean’s office; we called them sit-ins.”
“No, no,” he said. “It’s going to be bigger than that.” Then on a napkin or two he outlined his plans for world domination. No kidding.
It was a plan that was anti-Western culture: The need for Middle Eastern oil would fund the West’s downfall. The revolution did not respect borders.
The Shah would only be the first to go. They would place their leaders in power, religious men who’d rule according to Islamic law. And the West would be thwarted, because the revolution would not be hampered by traditional notions of borders or armies. Etc, etc, etc.
What did this news woman do? Wish him luck and ask if he knew anyone else who might build us a fire place if he decided to “take over the world.”
Never heard from him again. About a month later, the US Embassy was overthrown.
I just didn’t take this pleasant, attractive young man’s cartoon-like plan to take over the world seriously. And, given the times, I don’t think if I had, and reported him to the CIA before the embassey takeover, the CIA would have taken me seriously. Do you?
Editor’s Note: This incident was a half-forgotten piece of family history until 9/11, when the writer, who is using a pseudonym, wrote about it in an e-mail to her children.
The writer has long since left the radio station and news work for what she describes as “an NGO that supports the efforts of moderate Christians, Jews, and Moslems in Israel and Palestine, who work and live together in mutual respect.”
The author reflects: “I thought it would be good to have this published, for the same reasons I wrote my children. On one level, it’s a quirky story; on another, it offers lessons I learned too late, and some I still have difficulty with.”
Posted by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 | Email This PostThis entry was posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 at 12:03 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
6 Responses to “Plans of World Domination”
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October 25th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Wow, that is an interesting story. I wonder if she remembers the man’s name? I would probably be obsessed to find out more about that guy if that happened to me. It is believable in that if someone did have a plan to take over the world they probably couldn’t keep it to themselves. She didn’t say if that experience has anything to do with joining the NGO and doing the work she is doing? That story brings up a lot of questions.
October 29th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Hello Jason,
His name was Mohammed, I never knew his last name. I thought at one time, if someone wanted to find ut who he was, he could be found via looking at recent Iranian Archetecture graduates, married to an American.
I wasn’t obsessed, as I was a young parent with a new home, in a new location and had a great deal of “real life” to occupy my thouhts. And yes, Mohammed didn’t keep the “plan” to himself, I’m sure if he told me, he told many. And, I’m just as sure, those who heard , were of two camps: those who believed and supported and those like me who disbelived or paid no attention, until the revolution began.
November 10th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Hi!
It is a real story of life which is always unexpectable. Your story is like resume of all the events happening in our recent past with the horrific results filling up all media. A wonderful highlight of our essential temptation as human beings: to live undisturbed. But these are more than strange times and we can no longer live this way. It is a sad fact.
Thank you, we should all thank you for reminding us we should communicate more deeply and try to really get to know foreign cultures and what other people may think, feel or hope. Their ideals may be oh, so wrong, but we still must try to find out how they got them, or why.
Would the good answer to all this be: Isolation? Can we live our isolated lives in times like these?
My personal answer (not only mine, of course) is that Education should be the key. How about Global Study of the World History? How about kids that learn about World History all over the World and read the same one manual with the same cold and vivid facts about what we were, what we did, with pride, or, as the case may be, with shame, sometimes.
History is a political tool and if it remains a national study it will continue to teach these future guys that they are the best, but their neighbors less so.
Thanks again very much for the chance to read your story!
Good luck!
Nina
July 1st, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Hello Nina,
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I haven’t checked thi ssite in a long time or I would have replied sooner. A global study of world history is an interesting idea, but be careful of what you wish for: who is going to write the “one” history . I tend to think the more histories and perspectives that are available to us, the freer the society and the better informed the idividual. One history seems kinda scary/totalitarian to me.
Best,
K
August 10th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
This is a powerful story. It illustrates a horrifying emergency I hope we, as a nation, have the courage to face. Each time we put gas in a car we are buying weapons to kill Americans and other free peoples. The money trail goes right to Middle East dictatorships and fanatical movements. The push for alternative vehicles such as plug-in hybrids is not just a push to save oil. It’s a push to preserve democracy. We need to stop funding dictatorships that happen to be oil rich. Enough is enough! I pray that our leaders will face this emergency and declare it as an emergency. Right now we are funding our own destruction. Oil: It’s an addiction more deadly than heroin. Candidly, I think gasoline should be rationed.
Thanks for your timely tale.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Let me weigh in with a different point of view.It is my belief that we are all of the same race,the human race.we are all more the same than different.If people would take a serious look at the reglois base of each of our religions we would start to see common threads,these threads could bridge the social,economic,and religious differences that we all have.If we could all build the bridges that need to be built would it not be a better world?A world where intolerance would be a thing of the past,there would be no need for hatred.In my 55 years on this planet I have come to believe in this more and more.I pray for the day that this becomes a reality. If any one would like to debate this with me or share their thoughts with me here hows you can reach me.badge216@yahoo.com