Returning to the Past in the Collective Iranian Mind

In this note, Arvin Pouyan analyzes the phenomenon of "returning to the past" as a sign of a deep crisis in the political imagination of Iranian society. He argues that the widespread inclination toward so-called "golden" eras—from ancient Iran to the nostalgic reconstruction of the Pahlavi period or early Islam—is not merely an ideological preference, but is rooted in accumulated experiences of defeat, instability, and the blockage of future horizons.