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Undertoad · 10-24-2002, 04:42 PM

I agree with all of that. Maybe "nothing" would have been better, but at the same time, maybe inevitably impossible too.

A culture, a school of thought, is unproductive and winds up controlling only areas of the world that are seen as unneeded. The school of thought survives, however, because of its extremely insular and tribal nature. It protects its own at all costs because that is the only way to survive in the desert, or in the mountains, where so little else survives.

Other cultures or schools of thought become more productive, overtake desireable areas of the world, learn how to be even more productive. They struggle with how to divvy up the stuff they produce, and the power that comes with the new powers of production.

All of a sudden all that productivity learns to take advantage of the stored energy of oil, and almost by accident, the worst of that insular, unproductive, tribal culture gets the gift of half the world's most important resource. What had only been sand, the world's least important...

Perhaps Allah saw His guys falling behind and wanted to gift them back into being players? Nope. It was merely an accident. But now, they *have* to deal with the rest of the world, because it is too important to the rest of the world. What happens now?

10-24-2002, 04:42 PM	#144
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	I agree with all of that. Maybe "nothing" would have been better, but at the same time, maybe inevitably impossible too. A culture, a school of thought, is unproductive and winds up controlling only areas of the world that are seen as unneeded. The school of thought survives, however, because of its extremely insular and tribal nature. It protects its own at all costs because that is the only way to survive in the desert, or in the mountains, where so little else survives. Other cultures or schools of thought become more productive, overtake desireable areas of the world, learn how to be even more productive. They struggle with how to divvy up the stuff they produce, and the power that comes with the new powers of production. All of a sudden all that productivity learns to take advantage of the stored energy of oil, and almost by accident, the worst of that insular, unproductive, tribal culture gets the gift of half the world's most important resource. What had only been sand, the world's least important... Perhaps Allah saw His guys falling behind and wanted to gift them back into being players? Nope. It was merely an accident. But now, they have to deal with the rest of the world, because it is too important to the rest of the world. What happens now?