[Parlay44]

(04-05-2012 02:58 PM)assman Wrote:  

(04-05-2012 02:54 PM)ElJefe Wrote:  

From what I can tell, Middle Eastern cultures are full of massively insecure men who use anger to control their environments. They get ridiculously impassioned in debates, there is often neither rhyme nor reason to their dogmatic world-views.

It's absolutely mindless and bad for men and women both. Absolutely dysfunctional. The only reason they even have a moderate say in world affairs is because we have some kind of brainless respect for their fucked up way of doing things.

Which society is dysfunctional, the one that has sub-replacement birth rates, or the one that keeps families together? The one that encourages otherwise good men to become rogue pump and dumpers or the one that rewards these men with faithful wives?

Middle Eastern societies have their flaws, some of which were mentioned earlier, but western culture is far more dysfunctional.

My family isn't middle eastern but we're from a nearby area of the world. My father and family love to debate politics until they're blue in the face. It gets old after a while.
They argue over things that don't concern them directly. It's pretty much the way ElJefe describes.

(04-05-2012 03:18 PM)lurker123123 Wrote:  

(04-05-2012 02:54 PM)ElJefe Wrote:  

The only reason they even have a moderate say in world affairs is because

OIL

Before the industrial revolution the great industries of the world were real estate and agriculture. Every farm was a family business and that's what the economy was based on.
If you didn't own land or a farm you were nothing. A vagrant. A day laborer. A gypsy. Everyone that lived in these countries made of sand were peripheral to the world economy.
They had no power or influence. Then suddenly when the industrial revolution came around and the gasoline and diesel engines made their appearance all the sand countries had
the commodity required to make it go. Oil. Now they have all the power. Problem is they don't contribute anything to the world besides oil. They have no other industries. We'll
see a shift in world power when the world breaks its dependance on oil. If they're smart they'll take all their wealth and spread it around, diversify.