Nostalgies of the Burnt Generation

In case you did not know we, the Iranian youth born during the 80s, call ourselves 'The Burnt Generation'.

We were born just after a bloody revolution and then lived through an eroding war that lasted a whopping whole eight years, -- that's enough to get you from the crate to school desks; right? We witnessed death at every corner and learnt that life was nothing to be taken for granted while this world was not worth being cherished. All these nihilistic ideas were inculcated onto our young minds throughout the years. We were denied the little reasons to be happy that were congruent with our early years, were segregated at schools from as low as seven years of age and were forced to digest concepts such as martyrdom and self-denial. 

This background insight should be enough to give you just a taste of how things were for us as children. In case you are interested, there are now numerous sources on the internet that will provide you with a more exquisite account of the term and the context. My own piece dated 12.June.2003 might serve as a decent starting point. I still lived in Iran at the time and was 22 back then. 

But as much as The Burnt Generationists led a less-than-jolly-life, we may still take the liberty of indulging in the Western luxuries from time to time. One of those luxuries that still reach us through the labyrinth of sanctions imposed on Iranians is...ehem...nostalgia. 

We are best at this one, trust me! We are a nation that successfully ranks atop, and if not there 'among the tops', of every refugee and diaspora chart. Thus, it is not that daunting of a task to find things that take us back to a state of felicity and joyousness that quite probably never actually existed in the first place!

Here is an example of our nostalgic bits that has been going viral within the Iranian cyber space. It is an extract from one our childhood years' programs that constituted the very little fun we were allowed during those years:

[my translation]

1st puppet: Leave me alone, I wanna go and kill him!
2nd puppet: Not now, it is of no use. Come back.
1st puppet: Let go of me, I wanna go and kill him to teach him a lesson.
...
Host: What's up? Whom do you wanna kill?
...
1st puppet: I wanna pluck out his two eyes.
2nd puppet: But if you wanna kill him I will go with you too.
...
2nd puppet: We will beat the crap out of him so much that he will fall dead.
1st puppet: The lunatic.
2nd puppet: He has a screw loose.
Host: Don't swear kids, it's a sin.
Puppets (both): What? It's a sin? Do you mean you are on his side?
Host: But who?
...
 Host: I am on the side of all good human beings.
1st puppet: so you think he is a human being too?
Host: But who?
1st puppet: the one who attacked...the one who thinks it is his father's legacy...
1st puppet: that gav [Persian for cow]... Sadgav [in Persian 'hundred cows'. Apparently a demeaning term to refer to Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator, who was at the peak of his power leading the war against Iran.]
Host: Aha... Saddam... that lunatic must be....
2nd puppet: Killed!
...
Host: He deserves it.
1st puppet: Yeah, he must be mutilated.
2nd puppet: His moustache has to be plucked and he must be beaten so much that he falls dead.
...
Host: But he is dying already, with these attacks launched against him by our dear guardians [of the Islamic Revolution] and Basij [Militia] and army, he would die of a sudden heart attack any day and go to Hell....

And this was our 'Children's Program'!

Of course the host later advises the kids to give up on going on a "Hunt down Saddam" joyride and tells them "to study their lessons instead." But perhaps the message was lost within the early revolutionary zeal that made the scenes such as the one that follows a reality.

The footage shows Iranian minor POWs at a Red Cross camp in Iraq.