Blog Heap o'Links for August 2012

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Culture

121 Geo Bush was wrong on the nation building shit in Afghanistan.
Hard to build a nation out of something that doesn't really want to be one. Its a mistake to apply western values and goals to other places.
Any reasonable person could see that A-stan is easily 300 years away from anything resembling a nation in the usual sense.
We should have just killed the scum we came to kill, then left. The locals would have understood that because retribution and score settling is a big part of the culture. What they don't like is the people who stick around and try to actively change their way of life.
Influences need to be very subtle, so subtle locals just notice you doing something small a bit differently and it seems to work better than whatever they're doing. You don't even talk about it, just allow them to notice it. Then they go away for a while, mull it around, and allow it to become THEIR IDEA if they like it. At that point you can offer narrow limited assistance on that one specific thing. Maybe they'll take it, maybe they won't. Don't push the issue. The whole key to survival for outsiders in xenophobic societies is to appear completely non-threatening and benign to them.
Posted by: @PurpAv at August 27, 2012 10:31 PM (COZLs)

10:35pm CDT Mon 2012 Aug 27 :MW