In my sci-fi blog, I was comparing the Afghan and the Russian way of war.
Then I came up with this bit of thinking, which might be useful to you:
—<Quote begins>—
Islamic culture, while certainly authoritarian, is far more able to handle leadership loss/foolish leaders than Imperial cultures such as China and Russia. Serious decentralization, deep tribal & familial roots, and the high birthrate (tied closely to the low status of women) helps with securing the future, too.
Wiser planners, too: unlike Putin’s Russia (and Nazi Germany, and Fascist Japan), the Muslims are unwilling to risk it all on a single high-risk throw of the dice.
(The 9/11 incident was a small operation, quite cheap compared to the costly American/NATO response.)
The Muslims will be here, centuries after Russia & China are gone.
No, I don’t believe that Christians should degrade/keep women ignorant. Smart mothers and educated wives are light-years more beneficial (and wealth-building) than dumb ones!
I am suspicious of tribal organizations as well: too blinkered and not open to the future.
But I would certainly raise up the family above the welfare state, when it comes to education, health, and family welfare, including elderly support.
Family is more reliable than the aging welfare state in the long term, as will be demonstrated after the false saviour/healer goes financially belly-up. It is unwise to replace personal connections (and personal accountability) with impersonal policy planners, even if the policy planners come with Free Stuff in their hands.
And if Christian wives don’t want to have children, you’d better ask her why. If the husband can’t work out a deal, then just build a few kids/no kids family, and expand the Kingdom of God in other ways, from charity to education to apprenticeship to local missionaries/multiplying home church to teaching small business skills.
(“Home church”, a la study, eating, prayer, fellowship, just as Jesus worshipped with His disciples. Good tools for (re)building a civilization: a Christian civilization. No self-serving, power-seeking institutional priesthood required. Inspired by Perks’ The Christian Passover.)
But…the second-best way for a Christian couple to piss off secularists is to raise four or more children (adopted or natural) as clear and logical thinkers, skilled and reliable workers, and informed, independent, self-governing, expansion-mined Christians who place the commandments of Christ — and objective truth itself — far above whatever delusion the current caesars are babbling about at the moment.
I like winning. All Christians should.
2 Also, fighting defence in your own mountains has its advantages. Compared to fighting offence on someone elses’ vast plains, at an (unplanned) tech, financial, troop count, intelligence, and popular support disadvantage.
So many things went wrong with the invasion of Ukraine.
And in the meantime, certain factories in Russia keep mysteriously blowing up/burning down.
I am utterly confident that I don’t know even 30% of the full story. But that’s OK: I’m just a civilian blogger.
The really interesting thing is that Mr. KGB Putin knows, maybe, 10% of what’s going on.
—<Quote ends>—
We’re in a long fight.
But our Islamic and Secularist enemies are naturally cursed.
OUR curse can be easily removed, as soon as we choose to repent.
So, let’s repent.
Let’s actually obey Christ, rather than church leaders, and rather than cringe in fear (… and in implicit worship…) of rapidly-aging Secularists.
Let’s rebuild fellowship among ourselves, face-to-face, as well as obedience, individual and corporate.
A man or a people filled with the Holy Spirit – the Spirit that directs true obedience to God – is going to gain the victory over his enemies.
Let’s do this.
Acrosss the Stars 