I would consider something a historical law if it tends to repeat far more than it tends to produce exceptions. I'm neither a positivist nor a Hegelian, so this is more about seeing repetitive patterns than drawing larger conclusions from them.
Aboriginal Disaster: I would say that is a historical law that when advanced civilizations encounter less advanced or tribal or hunter-gatherer or nomadic peoples, regardless of the advanced society's goals or intentions, the less advanced suffer massive cultural dislocation and usually fail to adapt, even over time. When the Europeans discovered North and South America and Australia, the result for the aboriginals --be they primitive Australians or Aztecs and Incas-- has been disastrous for them. Whatever the mix of forces, most of them have not thrived in the new order, even five hundred years later.
Islamicization is Forever. Another historical law is that when a society is governed by Muslims --as when the Byzantine, Visigoth and Persian nations were conquered in a single century by the newly Mohammedan Arabs--, over time that society will become thoroughly Muslim and the remnants of the original peoples --regardless of original treaty provisions-- will shrink in numbers and become inferior minorities whose security will wax and wane with the Islamic mood. Example: all the remaining Christians (Copts, Armenians, Orthodox, etc.) in the Muslim world. Once Islamicized, it is the rare society ceases to be so.
The Anglosphere. Another one. If a society combines relatively high degrees of personal freedom, stable government and economic prosperity, it was probably shaped primarily by British men (or other North/Western European men.)
Ashkenazi Power. When Ashkenazi Jews live even in small single digit percentages in a society and there are no legal barriers against them, (even more so when social barriers are thin) they will come to play a hugely disproportionate role in that society, especially in business, law, finance, education, government, communication and the arts. And to the extent that they are secular, as most contemporary Jews are, rather than observant, they will be massively leftliberal, hostile to Christianity and hostile to any national identity based on common ethnicity or race. They will promote secularism and multiculturalism.
Host and Parasite. Some groups, on their own, will always alternate between anarchic gang rivalries and Big Man tyrannies. When inserted into more advanced societies, they will fare better compared to their original matrix but worse compared to the surrounding peoples that created the advanced societies, rarely creating anything but a largely parasitic and crisis-ridden relationship with the host society.
Appeasement. Appeasement of a barbarian group by an advanced society will eventually lead to the barbarian conquest of that society because barbarians, driven by a testosterone value system, will interpret accomodation not as reasonableness but as corruption and weakness.
Culture Trumps Law. Regardless of pre-existing structures and institutions, when you significantly alter the demographics of a society, you alter that society's culture, regardless of what you call it. Eventually the culture will rule and institutions, regardless of formal shape, will serve it. A variation of "demography is destiny".
Aboriginal Disaster: I would say that is a historical law that when advanced civilizations encounter less advanced or tribal or hunter-gatherer or nomadic peoples, regardless of the advanced society's goals or intentions, the less advanced suffer massive cultural dislocation and usually fail to adapt, even over time. When the Europeans discovered North and South America and Australia, the result for the aboriginals --be they primitive Australians or Aztecs and Incas-- has been disastrous for them. Whatever the mix of forces, most of them have not thrived in the new order, even five hundred years later.
Islamicization is Forever. Another historical law is that when a society is governed by Muslims --as when the Byzantine, Visigoth and Persian nations were conquered in a single century by the newly Mohammedan Arabs--, over time that society will become thoroughly Muslim and the remnants of the original peoples --regardless of original treaty provisions-- will shrink in numbers and become inferior minorities whose security will wax and wane with the Islamic mood. Example: all the remaining Christians (Copts, Armenians, Orthodox, etc.) in the Muslim world. Once Islamicized, it is the rare society ceases to be so.
The Anglosphere. Another one. If a society combines relatively high degrees of personal freedom, stable government and economic prosperity, it was probably shaped primarily by British men (or other North/Western European men.)
Ashkenazi Power. When Ashkenazi Jews live even in small single digit percentages in a society and there are no legal barriers against them, (even more so when social barriers are thin) they will come to play a hugely disproportionate role in that society, especially in business, law, finance, education, government, communication and the arts. And to the extent that they are secular, as most contemporary Jews are, rather than observant, they will be massively leftliberal, hostile to Christianity and hostile to any national identity based on common ethnicity or race. They will promote secularism and multiculturalism.
Host and Parasite. Some groups, on their own, will always alternate between anarchic gang rivalries and Big Man tyrannies. When inserted into more advanced societies, they will fare better compared to their original matrix but worse compared to the surrounding peoples that created the advanced societies, rarely creating anything but a largely parasitic and crisis-ridden relationship with the host society.
Appeasement. Appeasement of a barbarian group by an advanced society will eventually lead to the barbarian conquest of that society because barbarians, driven by a testosterone value system, will interpret accomodation not as reasonableness but as corruption and weakness.
Culture Trumps Law. Regardless of pre-existing structures and institutions, when you significantly alter the demographics of a society, you alter that society's culture, regardless of what you call it. Eventually the culture will rule and institutions, regardless of formal shape, will serve it. A variation of "demography is destiny".
3 comments:
Islamicization is Forever as long as spaghetti, olive oil, and red wine are not involved. Consider Islamic dominion over Sicily, Calabria, and Puglia.
A fair point, although the Arab rule there lasted only about a century.
And Spain is another example. But there you had a constant 700 year war back and forth and eventual ethnic cleansing of the Muslims.
So the Law is appended as I noted: "it is the rare society..."
You SHOULD be a Hegelian, at least!
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