Mainan_Tagonist

which of the two is John Keay?

Why unfortunately? Tolstoy and Dostoevky are generally recognized as great authors. Being Russian does not make them retrospectively Putinist, does it?

This is a pretty good read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/174501.India

This is a bit lighter and not specifically about India, enlightening nonetheless: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/166434.Empire

Basically, the history of British administration of India can not be summed up by the massacre of Amritsar or the sepoy wars

Depends who you ask... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_statue_of_Genghis_K...

Kublai Khan also makes for decent entertainment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo_(2014_TV_series)

"You really need something special for the foreign terrorists to be willing to travel half a world just to blow themselves up on your doorstep"

Yes, and what could be that something special?

Imperialism says you? Britain and France have been struck by terrorism yet they no longer have an empire. Ok, guilt by association could be a motive... But then why would Belgium and Germany be struck? oh, and Sweden too? And all these kidnapped christian girls in Nigeria? and in every case by Sunni-Muslim...

Maybe it's anti-imperialism, who knows... perhaps some middle eastern sunni muslims were really upset that Sweden ever had an empire, and decided that ramming a crowd with a truck was a good way to avenge the "oppression" perpetrated by Sweden 300 years ago.

That, or maybe you could adjust your worldview, and realise that religious fanatism has been a pretty strong motivator for atrocities throughout history, and even in such enlightened times as ours, there are still people who would conduct the most horrendous acts for their faith and the credibility it gives them within their group.

In all cases, the Chinese, who also suffered from such attacks (the perpetrators were of the same religion), found a "solution" that is much more aligned with imperialistic norms throughout history. They have not been struck since.

And no, be at rest, I am not for the establishment of a surveillance state, but pointing the wilful blindness in your reasoning.

Indeed, empires do not have to exist, and the world could constitute of individual nations ruling themselves independently in democracy peace and happiness.

By historical standard, over the last 10000 years prosperity, democracy and peace have hardly been the norm, don't you think? Empires have existed all over the world however. Perhaps we should accept what is a fact of life of human societies, and try to minimise its most egregious aspects, rather than wishfulling hoping for the profound change that will never materialise.

The pilots who flew planes into buildings 25 years ago were saudis, Saudi Arabia was never part of a western Empire. They trained in Afghanistan which was never part of a western empire (Alexander the Great does not count).

They were able to strike the American empire because, contrary to the common political discourse on the left, the American empire is a rather open and benevolent hegemon by historical standard, and internal dissent is not crushed or exterminated as it would have been were the Americans behaving as the Ottomans, the Romans, the Mongols, the Spanish, USSR etc...

I am not apologizing the American empire, I am not even american nor do I like the culture that spews out of the US, especially these days, but one has to put things into historical context if we are to understand the nature of terror attacks.

The more i think about math these days, the more i see it as a muscle one must constantly train to achieve its potential.

Give it too long a rest and you have to go back at full blast for weeks on end to hope to ever achieve past performance.

I am very bad at math and have always been in awe of those who can do it well.

no, it's nothing specific to "The West" or the decisions it has taken. The typical "They hate us because our bad policies" does not explain why every empire (western or not) has had to contend with dissenters keen on overthrowing its "yoke".

How would the Mongols, the Russians, the Egyptian empires have solved the israeli/palestine conflict? Do you know where the terms zealots and sicario come from? Did the Romans solve these terror attacks by reconsidering their "catastrophically bad policies"?

or put simply, just rebelling against any attempt at modernising muslim societies. Anwar Sadat comes to mind.

Yeah... what about those?

How many retaliatory terror attacks on americans performed by citizen of those countries?

What point are you trying to make? US bad? Anything more thoughtful to offer?

The US are an empire and they have behaved as an empire over the last 70 years (bombing, overthrowing governments, supporting dictators). By historical standard, they have proved less coercive than empires of proportionally comparable reach. Think of the Mongols, the Assyrians, the Japanese...

yet you fail to account for the fact that said people wouldn't wouldn't be in power did terrorism not have occurred in the first place. How many bad leaders in the west resulting directly or indirectly from terror attacks?

And freedom fighters are supposed to actually care about "freedom" while terrorists generally do not. I fail to see what great advancements in freedom for anyone involved have come out of the terror attacks performed over the past 25 years.

Are you talking about income or actual wealth?

Your income may remain constant while your wealth rises significantly (say... because your investments are doing well, because you inherited... etc). The two are often confused when talking about (tech) billionaires.

"- Err, we have no money. - Sigh. ok. Go and attack our rivals over there."

Strictly speaking, this is not what happened, and a gross oversimplification. The Byzantines were not exactly rivals of the Venetians. The whole thing was quite bizarre in fact, Roger Crowley has a pretty good story of the events leading up to this in "City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire" if I'm not mistaken.

it's because it's not real communism.

Yes, Frankopan's Silk Roads was a disappointment to say the least, I was really expecting an enlightening history of the middle east, starting from the early interrelations between the various civilisations (Egypt, Babylon, Harappan) and the progression through time (for example mentioning the Periplus of Roman adventurers into the far east). Good histories of China (Goldman/Fairbanks), and India (Keay) had whetted my appetite, and I think I'll need to read Dalrymple to be fully sated.

Tim Severin is referenced in the list, so i would suggest as an addition Tracking Marco Polo by the very same author, a fun read indeed. From Goodreads: Tim Severin took up the challenge offered from antiquity by Marco Polo. Using the great explorer's journals as a route guide, Severin followed him all the way from Venice to Afghanistan - on a motorbike. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1735662.Tracking_Marco_P...

"That’s one government though. I can’t think of any other western government funding Israel in a similar way."

My point, exactly!

western governments funding Israel?

What western governments exactly? Isn't Israel capable of funding itself through its own economy?

Don't muslim citizens and foreign residents in Switzerland enjoy more rights than in pretty much any Muslim country?

There is definitely some hostility to some aspects of Islam, aspects which seem to only recently have become central to the exercise of worship for some (the veiling of women for instance), yet this has not translated to some outright discrimination of muslims. Bosnian and Albanian immigrants for instance appear to have been integrated and/or assimilated into society.

Such dickheads the Swiss voting public, how dare they exercise a direct democracy?! So inconveniencing!

there is a time and place for everything. "Les règles de bienséance" matter more to me than the safekeeping of the exactness of English grammar, which as others have been keen to point out is hardly as strict as you seem to imply.

And no, no French person likes to receive corrections in grammar. Giving lectures on proper english grammar/pronounciation is generally a mark of (classist) pedantry since speaking proper english is generally the preserve of those lucky few that have had the opportunity of spending time in the Anglosphere, a tiny minority of the french population in fact, who are always eager to put their one upmanship on display, in a very crude, almost vulgar fashion.

I have been travelling through Japan for the past week, the grammatical and orthographical error would likely give you a nosebleed. Meanwhile, I just smile and move on, I got the meaning, it is what matters. Same for the OP.

Pedantry attracts dislike. One may be right to state something, yet wrong to call it out in public.

I shared the article with my Brother in Law (my better half is argentinean), he sent me this:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDUzqoRC1eZ/?igsh=aWpwbGJ1Znd...

Maybe because what you call "Fascism" isn´t Fascism and, as far as i know, nobody wants to gut our (varied) social programs, but we are just conscious that in some cases, said programs are failing, unsustainable due to resources misallocation and/or grossly mismanaged.

Having a slightly more dynamic entrepreneurial scene, where one is allowed to fail for instance, would be nice.

In my view, the way forward and the example to follow is Switzerland, not the US.

Chip War by Chris Miller is a good read: https://www.amazon.com/Chip-War-Worlds-Critical-Technology/d...

what are those odds looking like in the mid future? How many european governments are currently considered on the "extreme" spectrum? And what makes you think the Euro implemented in 2002 is the reason for the non-reoccurence of a war ended in 1945?

Studying the root causes of the two world war would certainly enlighten

You simply do not know if he is objectively wrong. On the basis of 25 years of Euro, what we have observed is that in the eurozone, capital follows productivity, and countries tend to specialise in line with what their factor endowment and national inclination will let them. The Euro is usually "sold" as a miracle solution when it has only really been successful for countries that had a very export oriented string industrial sector, and even then, with mixed results (see Italy). Bulgaria can hope for capital inflows and increase in productivity but should also bear in mind that these factors are highly independent on economies of scale and overall sheer size of of the existing industrial base. Capital outflows and alignment with standard european prices may well be in order. This taking the average population age may be a killer. We'll see.

Same perception here, none of what is said by GP should be downvoted. Almost 25 years after its implementation, it's high time the overall impact of the Euro was assessed objectively.

Exactly, thank you for pointing this out. The Euro has hardly been the boon promised in many of the countries that have adopted it.