u/Stay-Responsible

​The Premise:

In our timeline, the 1979 revolution was a chaotic coalition of secular liberals, leftist intellectuals (inspired by anti-colonial Islamic socialism), and religious fundamentalists. Ayatollah Khomeini outmaneuvered everyone, creating the IRGC, branding the secularists as "enemies of God," and wiping them out.

​But what if the script was flipped?

​Imagine a timeline where the urban liberals (National Front) and the highly mobilized leftist intellectuals realize the existential threat posed by the conservative clergy. Instead of waiting to be purged, they strike first. They form a ruthless "Committee of Public Safety," seize the state apparatus, and launch a preemptive, systematic massacre of the fundamentalist leadership.

​The Execution:

Figures like Khomeini, a young Ali Khamenei, and the network of conservative Grand Ayatollahs are rounded up, branded as "reactionary feudalists and counter-revolutionary saboteurs," and executed.

​To manage the deeply religious, uneducated countryside, the regime doesn't implement state atheism. Instead, the socialists weaponize religious language. They use the intellectual framework of thinkers like Ali Shariati to argue that true Islam is inherently progressive, revolutionary, and anti-capitalist, framing the executed high clergy as corrupt perverters of the faith who sided with oppression.

​The Resulting State:

Iran becomes a highly unique, non-aligned "Democratic Republic of Iran"—a fusion of nationalist liberalism and technocratic socialism. It boasts a free-thinking, Westernized urban elite but enforces strict, authoritarian control over the rural provinces to forcibly industrialize and secularize them

​I need to vent, and honestly, I’m looking for some solidarity or advice from people who share my background.

​I have a background in Political Science and public policy framework analysis. For a long time, I loved preying into institutional mechanics, structural reforms, and system analysis. But lately, my professional lens has turned into a personal curse.

​I live in Israel, and watching the current political system and its ongoing institutional collapse has triggered a profound, clinical depression in me. I’m currently on medication, trying to pull myself out of a deep episode, but my brain refuses to switch off.

​The problem with having an academic background in this field is that you lose the luxury of blissful ignorance. Where an average person sees bad news, I see the anatomy of failure. I see the deliberate dismantling of checks and balances, systemic sabotage, and policies implemented in direct defiance of everything political science teaches us about stability and governance.

​It feels like a permanent Cassandra complex. You know exactly why and how the ship is sinking, you see the parameters leading to the crash, but you are entirely powerless to stop it. My intellect, which used to be my strength, is now being weaponized by my depression to prove that everything is hopeless. It feels less like a career and more like a chronic occupational disease—a form of institutional despair.

​I'm trying to practice cognitive offloading and limit my news intake, but when you live inside the system that is actively breaking its own laws, it’s incredibly hard.

​Has anyone else experienced this specific type of professional deformation? How do you separate your analytical brain from your personal mental health when the objective reality around you is spiraling?

​Would love to hear from fellow political scientists, students, or analysts who feel trapped in this exact same trap. Thanks for reading.

I am currently working on my Master’s degree in Public Management (with a Bachelor's in Political Science). While I love the field, I am realizing that my home country is too culturally traditional and family-oriented for the lifestyle I want to build. I want to leave and find work abroad, but I’m hitting a massive wall regarding how transferable this degree actually is.

​Public management and political science feel deeply tied to the specific bureaucratic and legal structures of the country you study in. Most government jobs require citizenship, leaving foreign nationals locked out of standard public sector career paths.

​I want to know if anyone here has successfully immigrated to another country (especially in Europe) using this specific academic background.

I am a 25-year-old man, and choosing to be childfree in a country with an intensely pro-natalist, family-centered culture feels like an uphill battle every single day. The social pressure to follow the traditional script is everywhere, and it shapes everything about the environment around you.

​Because of this, the dating market for someone with my lifestyle is practically nonexistent. It isn't even a matter of "how to find a date"—it is the reality that I cannot find a date here, period. In my age group, almost every single person either actively wants a large family or just assumes they will have children because it is the cultural default. The rare individuals who don't want kids are completely absent from my area or age bracket.

​It feels completely isolating to realize that your country's entire social structure is built around a path you don't want to take, leaving you with zero options to build a life or find a partner who shares your values.

​I just wanted to put this out here to see if any other childfree men have dealt with this level of total stagnation in highly traditional countries. How do you survive the isolation when the local dating pool is completely closed off to you?

Real Machiavellianism isn't just about being a cold, ruthless bureaucrat; as The Prince shows, its ultimate purpose is constructive state-building and preserving regional stability.

​Oberstein fails this standard because his actions systematically destroy the Empire's greatest assets—alienating Kircheis, provoking Reuenthal into rebellion, and breaking the rule that "no one rules alone."

​True statecraft requires building long-term institutional loyalty, not just using subtraction and fear to isolate the throne.

​Look at history—like Augustus Caesar securing Marcus Agrippa's loyalty by binding their families together—or how Tuğril Mahmut Pasha operates in Shoukoku no Altair.

​By turning the military pillars into enemies instead of securing them and co-opting threats (like Reuenthal's son), Oberstein proved he was a liability to the long-term stability of the Goldenlöwe dynasty.

Introduction:

I am currently exploring a political science framework analyzing the ongoing legislative shifts regarding gender segregation in Israel's public sectors (transportation, academia, and the removal of female imagery from public signage). While traditional analyses view these developments through the lens of generic patriarchal dominance or coalition concessions, I want to propose a structural biopolitical and somatic explanation.

​The Core Thesis:

My thesis argues that the insular religious enclave's institutional stability is fundamentally threatened by biological non-compliance among its adolescent and young adult male demographics—specifically regarding strict halachic compliance surrounding personal sexual purity (Shmirat Habrit). Because the leadership cannot alter human biology or eradicate the physical impulse, they must externalize the compliance costs onto the secular state infrastructure.

​Therefore, the systematic restriction of women’s civil rights and their physical erasure from the public square is not a random byproduct of religious zealotry. It is a rationalized, calculated spatial engineering project designed to act as an environmental quarantine. By legally sanitizing the public road of any visual female presence, the leadership attempts to eliminate the external stimuli that trigger involuntary physical reactions in male citizens.

​Questions for the Subreddit:

​Does this specific application of Foucault’s Biopolitics (the state regulation of physical bodily fluids and somatic outputs via environmental policing) hold up methodologically, or is it too reductionist?

​Are there cross-comparative studies of other fundamentalist enclaves (e.g., historical Puritanism, extreme sectarian groups) utilizing state architecture to manage localized biological compliance?

​How would you recommend sharpening the causality mapping between the textual religious directives and the explicit language of current 2026 Knesset legislative proposals?

: I am an Israeli political science student of Jewish descent. English is my third language, and due to dyslexia and dysgraphia, I use AI to polish my grammar and format my thoughts into clear, standard academic English.

Basically a good frustrated from people who doesn't understand how my government work and believe they know how we talk really.

Eddet : "Please excuse the polished nature of my writing. I have dyslexia and dysgraphia, so I use AI to fix my grammar and spelling. Without this tool, my writing would be very difficult to understand. I appreciate your patience and look forward to our discussion