Just reread the book (have read it over a decade ago).
If you truly want to understand why things are happening in the Middle-East and the Arab/Muslim culture - this is the book you should read.
Here is a link to the wiki page, and amazon.
It's funny, because in his wiki page the author is mentioned as a conservative.
Having disillusion from the leftist dream that decolonization will bring prosperity, he decided to understand for himself why. He went to Egypt in the 1960s and traveled to other countries as well.
He came to the conclusion that there was something fundamentally wrong with the Arab culture.
In his 1989 book, way ahead of anyone he showed how the Arabs are still having a tribal conceptualization of nationality and have no common agreement other than of power struggle.
He writes how honor distorts everything in people relations, stopping the Arabs from developing less "drama" in their life. They must lie to save face, so a man's word is not worth much.
He also portraits how bribery is linked with career and calls it "money-grace" relations (you bribe someone and he helps you).
He goes one ruler after another to show that modern rulers were worse than their predecessors in using totalitarian methods to rule. If you did not have an iron fist, you lost to the one with the iron fist (He uses Iran as an example).
He sums it up that in the Arab/Muslim world there is no "greater good" or "common good". Islam is no longer a unifier but a divider, since anyone can use it as an excuse for power. A ruler cannot have an opposition, because he will be beheaded or exiled.
Price Jones believes that until the Arabs sort it out for themselves, one should be very careful dealing with them. Democracy is useless.
The Arabs are in a closed Circle, which they either will be forced out or try to force it on others.
If you truly want to understand why things are happening in the Middle-East and the Arab/Muslim culture - this is the book you should read.
Here is a link to the wiki page, and amazon.
It's funny, because in his wiki page the author is mentioned as a conservative.
Having disillusion from the leftist dream that decolonization will bring prosperity, he decided to understand for himself why. He went to Egypt in the 1960s and traveled to other countries as well.
He came to the conclusion that there was something fundamentally wrong with the Arab culture.
In his 1989 book, way ahead of anyone he showed how the Arabs are still having a tribal conceptualization of nationality and have no common agreement other than of power struggle.
He writes how honor distorts everything in people relations, stopping the Arabs from developing less "drama" in their life. They must lie to save face, so a man's word is not worth much.
He also portraits how bribery is linked with career and calls it "money-grace" relations (you bribe someone and he helps you).
He goes one ruler after another to show that modern rulers were worse than their predecessors in using totalitarian methods to rule. If you did not have an iron fist, you lost to the one with the iron fist (He uses Iran as an example).
He sums it up that in the Arab/Muslim world there is no "greater good" or "common good". Islam is no longer a unifier but a divider, since anyone can use it as an excuse for power. A ruler cannot have an opposition, because he will be beheaded or exiled.
Price Jones believes that until the Arabs sort it out for themselves, one should be very careful dealing with them. Democracy is useless.
The Arabs are in a closed Circle, which they either will be forced out or try to force it on others.
"I love a fulfilling and sexual relationship. That is why I make the effort to have many of those" - TheMaleBrain
"Now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb." - Spaceballs
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine" - Obi-Wan Kenobi