From comments to Steve Sailer:
* Democracy promotion in the Arab world has done nothing but destabilize countries.
* The Middle and Near East could very well be returning to its natural state. Until the white man showed up looking for stuff to dig out of the ground, the most fertile and habitable region in Islam was a big expanse of nothing from the 7th century onward. There’s a good argument for thinking the oil business created an unnatural and unsustainable population explosion in the region. One that is about to tip into famine and decline. Yemen being the first to go.
* WW1 seemed to absolutely crush the creative spirit of Western civilization. Note the dearth of great classical music after WW1, and the more bitter, cynical nature of literature after that period. The best example is Russia, although the Bolshevik Revolution in conjunction with the likely had something to do with it.
Russia before WW1 = leading the world in literature, classical music, dance, and art.
Russia after WW1 = jack squat.
* It seems that Arab/Islamic world turmoil and upheaval doesn’t really let the cream rise to the top, but the crazies. With this in mind, it makes perfect sense why the King of Jordan, the Saudis, the Gulf states, and others are constantly whipping down on the Arab street.
