[ExI] LA Times: Rehabbing militants in Saudi Arabia (Meta)

[hkhenson]

At 02:01 PM 1/1/2008, you wrote:

>On Dec 30, 2007, at 8:22 AM, Keith Henson wrote:
> >
> > Pure political discussion is (or should be) below this list.  It's
> > like arguing about the number of angels you can pack on a pin.
>
>I disagree that politics is that pointless or divorced from reality
>although perhaps I am not properly understanding what you mean by
>"pure politics".

Merit or lack of merit of particular political views.

> > Using current political examples to illustrate more general points
> > about why humans have politics and what drives them is (or should be)
> > a major focus.
> >
> > In this respect, the original topic of convincing violent Islamic
> > militants to change their ways is smack on target.  I don't understand
> > how easy it is, but it is of vast importance to understand.
> > Understanding it will require EP.
>
>Since the US (and Britain) did and do a lot of pretty nasty things in
>Islamic lands I think it behooves rational people to also discuss
>avoidance of such inciting behaviors.    Without that discussion the
>above discussion is unbalanced and presumptive from the beginning.

Ah, but that's where EP comes in.  For stressed population, i.e., 
those where a substantial fraction of the population foresees a bleak 
future, you can't avoid inciting them.  With the gain up on the 
circulation of xenophobic memes a fricking cartoon is "reason" enough 
for them to go to war.

On the other hand, consider Japan.  The US firebombed and then nuked 
them.  Why are they not acting as nuts as Islamics?  The reason from 
an EP viewpoint is obvious.  Low population growth and decent 
economic growth keeps them in a mode where xenophobic memes don't 
propagate enough to make them nuts.

If you really want to solve such problems, you need to deal with a 
really hard issue: how to liberate the women in Islamic culture.  Any ideas?

Keith