Writing in Persian for Radio Zamaneh, Ahmad Khalfani asks why people who long for freedom sometimes hand it over willingly. Drawing on Ionesco's play Rhinoceros, in which a whole town turns into rhinos, and on Erich Fromm's Escape from Freedom, he argues that a strong leader, a simple promise or a common enemy relieves the discomfort of doubt. A large, uniform crowd then makes a shared mistake look like wisdom, and some join simply because it pays.

Khalfani ends with Mulla Nasreddin, who follows a crowd without checking what it claims. For freethinkers, the essay is a reminder that conformity rarely feels like surrender from the inside; it feels like belonging.

Source: Ahmad Khalfani, Radio Zamaneh (Persian) (2026-11-12)
https://www.radiozamaneh.com/905813

Summarised by the FTI newsdesk.