Tiger Woods and the Crimean War
I am currently reading an excellent book on the Crimean War. One of the things I found fascinating is how the British at the time commented that one of the reasons that the Ottoman Empire was crumbling was that polygamy was the norm. As the British noted, under a polygamous system, the top 20% of the men tend to monopolize 80% of the women. While this is fun for the top 20% of the guys, it tends to result in the majority of men to be not invested in society. And such men made very poor soldiers.
As sexual restraint has been eliminated in America, we are seeing a return to a more primitive state in which de facto polygamy is becoming the norm. Guys such as Tiger Woods have harems while other men are unable to find a mate. As such, can expect to see the crumbling of the American civilization similar to what occurred in 18th century Turkey.
Very interesting point about black ghettos suffering from the few top guys getting most of the women. I'm not sure it is accurate, but it is worth thinking about for sure.
ReplyDeleteAs a "people of color" myself, I'm intrigued.
I read the book (a book, anyhow) on the Crimean War five or eight year ago, so may be a bit rusty. However, my recollection is that the czar had a legitimate interest in protecting the Christians in Palestine. The motives of the French and English were unrelated to that. Instead, the entire issue from their point of view was the "balance of power" model of the world, and how that could be disrupted if Russia gained easy access into the Mediterranean. So the bit about Christians fighting over control over the birthplace of the Prince of Peace was amusing, but not accurate apparently.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's big problem for society that certain rare individuals have lots of mistresses, as long as people in general are more or less monogamous.
ReplyDeleteMorally speaking it might be bad, but I don't think it will lead to the downfall of civilization as we know it. It's an interesting point about black communities though.