History Lesson
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:18 pm
I read a lot of history type stuff and have read a few books about social relationships. There are several types of relationships and the most important are familule or clan and non familule lines of relationships. The difference between the two are that clan type relationships are unable too work with clans not related to them to solve problems. Non familule relationships are like when a German is broke down in his Mercedes on the side of the road and scotsman stops and trys to assist him, sure they can not understand each others bad accents and they both think they are the worlds best mechanical engineers, but a relationship was formed. Some societies are so clannish, such as a lot of your Arab countries that having an effective military is nearly impossible. They can drill and train the soldiers until they are blue in the face, but when the shooting starts most of the soldiers will not support their fellow soldiers because they are not related. If you remember the movie Lawrence of Arabia is trying to get support from the arabs, he pleads with the Arab chief to "do it for your fellow arabs" the chief looks at him puzzled and says "who are these other arabs?" they were so secular they did not even acknowledge the existance of others because they were not related. The forces that moved into Iraq found the Kurds to be very unlike the Muslims, they were organized in clan type groups but were able to work together to do things that needed doing. I think that the Kurds are reminants of Alexander the Greats army that got tired of walking and settled down. I watched a documentary on the Berlin airlift, many of the pilots flying into Berlin for the first time had just a few months earlier been shot at by these same people, but they did it anyway, when the planes landed and needed service or repair germans swarmed the planes without being asked or told and serviced or corrected the issues.Relation ships were formed. A non familule society would never have flown food into a starving city and a city made up of a clannish society would never have repaired and serviced the planes, even if it had benifited them.
Another interesting thing I have read about is that Afganastan used to be a Hindu state, when Muslims were moving into the area and causing trouble, A religous leader named Guru Gorkhanath in the area of where Nepal is now, gave Bappa Rawal a knife called a kirkri, and instructed him to run them out of the country. Bappa Rawal was so good at following instructions, he ran them out of most of Iran and Iraq as well. The area was then peacefull for several thousand years. Cannot help thinking a few Guru Gorkhananths willing to instruct and a few more Bappa Rawals willing to follow the instructions would not improve a few things. These are the same folks the Brits ran into in the early 1800s, fought them to a standstill, they the reached an agreement and they hired them as troops. They still exist today as the Ghurkas, one British general said "if you are not afraid to die, you are ether stupid or you are a Ghurka"
Another interesting thing I have read about is that Afganastan used to be a Hindu state, when Muslims were moving into the area and causing trouble, A religous leader named Guru Gorkhanath in the area of where Nepal is now, gave Bappa Rawal a knife called a kirkri, and instructed him to run them out of the country. Bappa Rawal was so good at following instructions, he ran them out of most of Iran and Iraq as well. The area was then peacefull for several thousand years. Cannot help thinking a few Guru Gorkhananths willing to instruct and a few more Bappa Rawals willing to follow the instructions would not improve a few things. These are the same folks the Brits ran into in the early 1800s, fought them to a standstill, they the reached an agreement and they hired them as troops. They still exist today as the Ghurkas, one British general said "if you are not afraid to die, you are ether stupid or you are a Ghurka"
