Is Iran really all that bad?

As I were going "must destroy" (working in the forest) on some trees earlier today, I suddenly asked myself: Do Iranians think their government is bad, are they like "meh, coulda been worse" or do they think it's kinda OK?

Here in Norway, the Social Democrats are in power. I don't like them much, but it could have been much worse (the ultra-conservative "Progress Party" could have been in power!).

So in Iran, could it have been MUCH MUCH worse? Are you (the Iranians) satisfied with Mr. President Ahmadinejad and his companions?
And how happy are you about Iran being an islamic state? Would you rather it was more "western oriented" or is it too "western oriented" as it is?

I'm not an expert on Iran, not even a novice, but I do know the really big historic events. Was the shah better for the people than Ayatollah Khomeini and his successors?

Please, only serious answers. Preferably from Iranians!

Iran is a corrupt democracy but it's a democracy with a healthy  and permitted opposition to the government, economic liberalization will set them on the right path so I don't think an aggressive attitude is in order.

>>1
>implying ultra-conservatism is bad

>>3
The rabid market fundamentalism they tend to push, has been proven to not work to spec, yet they still push it.

Also, the "Progress" Party in question, is a populist one. In their case, this means "lowest common denominator"; dumb things down and push black&white thinking, especially when _not_ appropriate. And (surprise, surprise!) going for the morally right solution _only_ when they can fish easy votes on it.

Also, I remember their leader saying that Norway "has no unemployment, just a bunch of work-shy youngsters in the Oslo region". It took a collapse of the job market for them to reconsider that. And that's just one example.

The more enlightened of them, tend to push Adam Smith as some kind of "mentor messiah". Push, not quote. Those who _have_ read his work, however, tend to quote him as saying something to the effect of the state needing to be a strong player in the market, to cancel out the lower effects of the free market.

(although they do have a point in that the communists are pushing this _way_ too far)

I just read a report on human rights watch how the police there go after activists, and reporters by beating, torturing and blackmailing them into making public confessions about trying to undermine the revolution. sometimes the confessions are made to look like legitimate interviews like you'd see on dateline or 60 minutes. In exchange for going through with it the state might let you out of jail.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/03/14/iran-alarming-rise-executions-prison-officials

http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2010/02/11/islamic-republic-31-0