By David Stephen
Every Iranian outside of Iran, who celebrated the death of the supreme leader, is an opportunity to reach out to those back in Iran, in droves, for messages of cognitive restructuring for the future. This means that if there will be a successful regime change, or lasting peace with Iran, there will be need for a substantial amount of counterbalancing against several hardline messages that have pervaded minds over decades.
There is a new [March 1, 2026] analysis on The Guardian, Celebration or grief? Khamenei’s death brings contrasting emotions in Iran, stating that, “Celebration and mourning broke out across Iran in response to the death of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an extraordinary public response to the end of nearly four decades of the top cleric’s rule.”
“In the squares of Tehran, crowds gathered to mourn the leader, chanting and holding placards with his image. But videos shared widely on social media also showed people celebrating, dancing, honking car horns and setting off fireworks as news of the leader’s death broke.”
“The contrasting responses reflect deep faultlines in a country stunned by the sudden demise of the man who ruled for 36 years. For those who experienced the violence of the regime’s recent crackdown on nationwide protests, the news was sweet. More than 7,000 people have been confirmed killed in the demonstrations, with 11,000 more deaths under investigation, the US-based human rights group HRANA has found. Tens of thousands more were arrested or injured.”
Regime Change
There should be a lot of haste to get messages across to people, through smartphones, about how to also think of the situation and the future.
These messages should offer fairness, balance, respect and then context. The messages will include various assessment questions.
There are religious and cultural lines that the messages must not cross, but political, business, development, equity and much else are areas to underscore.
While it is possible to use artificial intelligence chatbots to produce hundreds of these messages, most are expected to be tactically composed and targeted for aspects of mind as well as for possibilities or outcomes of the future.
For example, what does the imagination of an average Iranian say, about the next decade? While some may have malice or other negative fantasies, there are realities that they have to be aware of, that won’t change because they imagined otherwise.
Also, around the world, as sentiments are shifting away from immigrants, religions and much else, it will be important to cultivate an understanding that a peace-seeking and fair Iran is suitable.
And even if this will not be quickly effective, it is better it is available, as it may prompt some people to break ranks, in small or large groups, as well as ensure uniformity of mind for progress.
Technical Development
The central channel will be smartphones, but other electronic means can also be tried, including videos to the country, targeted like ads, social media outreach, and much else.
There are ways to broadcast text messages through their telecommunications networks, as well as messaging apps with their country code, and so forth. The goal is just to get cognitive restructuring messages across, to ensure that more people think differently about what they want for the future, aside involvement in conflicts and subjection to repression.
American Psychiatric Association
What would have been the most important non-military organization for peace in the Middle East is the American Psychiatric Association.
They did the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision [DSM-5-TR].
They are supposed to know about how the mind works, more than any group on earth.
Aside from mental disorders, there are ways that the mind works with hate, anger, bitterness, vengeance, meaning and so forth that can be conceptually described, for the objectives of peace and harmony.
The goal is — not to foment division, stoke hate, blame a side, pick another or imply superiority but — to make the case for peace. Some of the messages will explore empathy, love, care, the importance of life, the fragility of life, the common human cause, the future and much else.
While it may appear that lots of conflicts in the Middle East defy rationalization, and that attempting — what may seem like appeasement or softening against extremism — maybe a waste of time, the efforts are to provide mental references, given that sometimes, as people there are caught in the crossfire, confusion — on why or what — abound, and some just fight, adding to harms, losses and destructions.
It is possible to use this conflict to start a project for Iran, towards [regime change for peace, liberty and] stability. The goal is the mind, so citizens attempt to leap towards objectivity, find alternatives on what to think aside from hardline messages and then explore better action.
The American Psychiatric Association should have the capacity to do this, maybe in collaboration with some peace teams. The message architecture would be with cognitive and affective precision.
This can also be drawn from the postulate in Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology.
Peace is better for the world than war. There are several non-war problems that need to be solved or require answers, which, in the time of war, may remain distant.
1 Comment
The Iranian’s will need explanations to why Trump betrayed them and leveled their entire country with Israel then left them to fend for themselves, just as we did to gaza and the Palestinian people. Difficult to believe a “kind” message coming from anyone in our government or Israel’s when the aim is to kill as many Iranian civilian as possible. Using 2-5 ton bombs upon targets surrounded by residential neighborhoods is not a precision strike! It’s a strike intended to cause massive loss of life and structural devastation.