In Trump's Iran conflict, it's prosperity gospel vs. the Quran

The 1979 collapse of the Iranian monarchy coincided with the publication of Christopher Lasch's blockbuster book of ideas, The Culture of Narcissism, a critique of American celebrity, grandiosity and spiritual emptiness. In retrospect, the book explains the reasons Iran's young radicals rose up against the Shah's regime and the results of the revolution that put the first ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini, in power. It may also explain the reasons for the current war.

In the United States, a narcissistic "cult of the self," as Lasch puts it, tended then (and clearly tends now) to self-aggrandizement and an unhealthy focus on personal image and consumption. The current administration is a case study of the problem, even as it wraps itself in so-called Christian nationalism.

In prerevolutionary Iran, the overwhelming wealth of the monarchy, combined with aggressive modernization, presented Iranians with a worldview tilted toward an unattainable consumerism. They overthrew the Shah and his petrodollar trappings and replaced him with the austere presence of the supreme leader, a position that now appears to have become hereditary.

The face of the United States is the narcissistic — some say sociopathic — president who, though elected, can only be said to reign from the Oval Office, surrounded by gold leaf and billionaires. The face of Iran is the third in a series of hard-line clerics, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has replaced his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who replaced Khomeini.

Some call this Israel's war. To be sure, the United States' and Europe's interests in the Persian Gulf are enough to keep the bullets flying, but do not kid yourself. It is about money. The prosperity gospel is alive and well, promising good things, including actual material benefits, for those who believe in the righteousness of the "cause." In this case, the cause is suspiciously similar to that of the medieval Crusades.