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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 11, 2023

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Until the British bring democracy, railways and cricket to India, China is consistently more civilized. The only period where historical GDP per head estimates are higher for India is when China is recovering from being ravaged by Genghis Khan. The only areas where India has world-leading achievements are pure mathematics and classical music.

There are three civilizations - Persia, Rome and China. (Western Civilization is Rome under new management, which is why its hegemonic state is governed by a Senate which sits on Capitol Hill in a building decorated in the Corinthian order). From macro-demographic trends, we can tell that India is dramatically better off when governed by Persians (the Mughals), Romans (the Raj), or Romanized Indians (post-independence democratic India).

I don't think the cradle of Chinese civilization looks bad, although I agree that the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas now look better.

Persians (the Mughals),

Eh, the Mughals were descendents of the Mongols with a bit of Turkic influence added in (Babur, the first Mughal emperor was descended from both Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane, the latter of which was descended from both the Mongols and the Turks), I would say they are closer to China than Persia.

They used persian as their court language but that's not the same as being genetically persian.