THE WEST VS THE EAST VS THE ARAB MODEL Citizens as individual actors with the st

THE WEST VS THE EAST VS THE ARAB MODEL

Citizens as individual actors with the state as neutral arbiter vs citizens as troublesome dependents to be managed by the paternal head of family.

“These societies possess the outward trappings of a modern state but are founded on informal patronage networks, especially those of kinship, and traditional ideals of patriarchal family authority. In nations pervaded by clannism, government is coopted for purely factional purposes and the state, conceived on the model of the patriarchal family, treats citizens not as autonomous actors but rather as troublesome dependents to be managed.” – the Arab Development Report.

We are different. Our ancestry is that of egalitarian warriors not extended familial hierarchy.

We were different from the start.

And that difference: the need to debate between peers is the origin of reason, science, and all else that we have used to dig humanity out of ignorance and poverty.

Kicking and screaming, all the while.