Cold. Warm. Simple.
Orlov gets about half of this point.

Looking at history, a different vista presents itself. Since it first came together as a superethnos (Great Rus) around ten centuries ago, Russia has been consistently attacked and invaded from the west. It has been invaded by the Swedes, the Germans, the Poles/Lithuanians, the French and the Germans again. Note that these are all Northern European ethnic groups; this turns out to be important. All of these incursions the Russians managed to repulse. Russia was also invaded from the east, by a large and diverse group of nomadic peoples collectively known as the Mongols (even though actual ethnic Mongols among them numbered no more than a thousand) and this eventually led to integration and either assimilation or peaceful coexistence.

Why such a difference? Why are the Russians and the Poles like oil and water in spite of both being Christian, neighbors and speaking a Slavic language. Why did the Russians and the Tatars and other Turkic groups fuse together through intermarriage in spite of vast differences in language, custom, religion and geographic origin? Let us propose a daring hypothesis: the reason is organic.

He starts correctly with genetics, but slides into blaming religion and ideology because he doesn't see the entire genetic (and epigenetic) pattern.

The pattern is simple. Warm-weather people get along. Cold-weather people don't get along. People who developed over millenia in tropical climates didn't have to work hard to get food, and didn't need to make cultural provisions to store food. Strangers were a minor threat because everyone could reach up and grab their own mangos.

Cold-weather people have to work hard to GET and KEEP food, which means they're instantly defensive against the slightest threat to territory and resources.

Warmth is the default.

We've lived through a brief cold period, and now the earth is returning to default. More heat, more rain, more CO2. It all fits together, and plants love it. Animals also love it because animals eat plants.

If we weren't totally lunatized by the CIA GLOBAL WARMING CONSPIRACY, designed to destroy all industry and civilization and siphon all wealth into Jamie Dimon's bank account, we'd also love it because we eat plants and animals.

Unfortunately we ARE totally lunatized, and even Orlov was sucked into the CIA CONSPIRACY.

While thinking about this, I watched a Russian Insight program discussing Russia's SANE economic principles, but complaining that most people are still dissatisfied. Thanks to the Soviet system, Russia is blessed with low debt and high savings, which is the CORRECT way to live. It's especially correct for cold-weather people. After a brief invasion by Soros, Putin is restoring the Soviet AND Russian AND winter way of doing things.

As the discussers bemoaned the Russian dissatisfaction, my automatic snide thought was "Well, of course they're dissatisfied. They're Slavs. Tragedy is a vitamin for Slavs."

BINGO.

Dissatisfaction is NECESSARY for cold-weather people. Tropical people are happy most of the time despite huge difficulties. If you're satisfied in snow country, you won't work hard during the summer and save for the winter, and you won't maintain your ferocious defenses against external threats.

Labels: defensible spaces, defensible times, Natural law = Sharia law, Natural law = Soviet law

  ¶ 7:46 AM