HN Books @HNBooksMonth

That is generally how disruptions happen isn't it? This is a great book that talks about the previous cycle when it occurred.

https://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/031261...

By the way, I am currently using this engine to track the progress of the US/China trade war

https://trends.getdata.io/covered_entities/579

This goes right to the heart of the division we see today. The "endless state of war" Orwell warned about in 1984, is not just wars between nations, or proxy wars ~ we see it in the democratic systems as wars between factions of the population.

The system has an incentive to never produce a victor, only to prolong the conflict.

Much fighting in these wars occurs in social and traditional media, centered around "battleground topics", the OP being a clear example.

The OP is an example of a message in the battleground topic of "Islam vs the West" (aside: which is actually historically incorrect since Islam really can be said to be closer to the West than separate from it, one reason is that Islam revived Europe / Western civilization around the Mediterranean 1000 years ago [1]).

The OP article supports for the Islam side, one of many such articles. There are also many articles supporting the West side of this battleground topic.

The system will not permit there to be a conclusion to the argument, it is actually motivated to promote both sides, because this constant state of conflict is stabilizing to the democratic systems.

[1]: read this book, https://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/031261...

⬐ deogeo

Given that 1 million Europeans were kidnapped as slaves by Arabs, and both Spain and Sicily having been conquered by Muslims, and how most of the Yugoslavian region was called the "Military Frontier" for three centuries due to the Ottoman incursions it had to guard against, how on Earth do you arrive at "Islam vs the West" being historically inaccurate?

⬐ dosy

No offence, but it seems to me you want to see "Islam" and "the West" as a conflict. Maybe that story of Islam and the West in conflict has been manufactured, and your response (like many others') is desired by, and plays into the hands of, those who benefit from manufacturing conflict.

⬐ deogeo

That's a fine ad hominem, but you offer no rebuttal to my points. Perhaps you could share with us the main points the book makes instead?

⬐ dosy

Rebutt what? I don't see your conclusion following from your examples. So there's nothing to rebutt. By the way, I highly recommend you read the book.

⬐ yakshaving_jgt

How much of history do you believe is a fabrication? Do you believe the Battle of Vienna possibly never happened?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna

⬐ dosy

I didn't say facts didn't happen. I said the stories we make of them are optional.

I assume I know the same facts as you, and I choose a different interpretation. But maybe that's not true, maybe the facts you and I know are different.

If you read the entire book, I think you'll know why I say Islam is part of the West, not versus it.

You might enjoy the book "Why the West Rules -- For Now" (http://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611...)

One of the main premises is that the impact of societies on other societies ("ruling" in the vernacular of the book, as this impact has often been military and brutal in the time scale the book covers) has a lot to do with the kind of social organization they are able to use. There's amplifiers to this of course -- you can either mobilize a huge number of people to build a pyramid, or mobilize a huge number of people to invent cranes and bulldozers and let a few people build the pyramid. But the bottom line, according to Morris, is that this kind of social goal-oriented organization is a key metric of a society's impact.

⬐ andyjohnson0

The author gave an talk to the Long Now Foundation a few years ago. Audio stream/download is at [1]. I found it interesting, and he was an engaging speaker.

[1] http://longnow.org/seminars/02011/apr/13/why-west-rules-now/