Great Civilization
The Great Civilization is a term describing the Shah of Iran's political ambitions for Iran with near perfect communal conditions such as no poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, corruption, exploitation, or discrimination.
Plan
The Shah envisioned public health services bringing "for each Iranian maximum health and stamina," education yielding "the greatest possible degree of mental and intellectual well being," social insurance "from birth to death," and wages which would permit for all an individual's basic needs. All Iranians would be guaranteed housing and free from hunger as part of the Great Civilization.The Shah predicted the Great Civilization was not in the far future as Iran would reach the level of progress Western Europe had in 1978 by 1990 and Iran would catch up to nations like France and the United Kingdom by the end of the century. The Shah had prophesied the Great Civilization was destined as Iranians had a natural invincible energy, humanity, a sense of justice and rights, gift for sciences, literature, arts, universal outlook, and a deep-seated patriotism that protects Iranianness in any adversity.
The Shah sought to prove Iran's Great Civilization would surpass western nations and avoid the shortcoming of the west. He told westerners Iran would be "free from the blemishes of your society" and in a 1974 Indian newspaper, the Shah stated, "If we protect inheritance … I am confident that we shall avoid the abysses into which material and materialistic civilisations have fallen."