My pet theory on why the middle east is so uncivil

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ETA: The agricultural Mesopotamian society relied on the periodic flooding of the rivers to deposit silt onto the farmland to enrich the soil and increase crop yields. After the rivers receded, the farmers knew that they could start planting. (Thank you, 9th grade social studies.)[/quote]

Excuse me. You got your rivers mixed up.
The two oldest civilizations in the mideast and in the whole world were Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Jojobean is correct in stating that the Tigris- Euphrates systems is dangerous and unpridictaable and when it floods can be dangereous.

Its the Nile that has the annual gentle floods that enrich the soil.
Its the nile of egypt that predictable and benovelolent.

And infact the contrasting river systems did effect the cultures of the two area.

Egypts stable and predictable river sytem fostered a very optimistic and very static culture. Mesopotamian art and literature is much more pessimistic and its mythology and religion are more pessimistic with threatening gods and so forth.

So environment did effect ancient mesopotamia's (modern Iraq) culture in some ways.
There is some truth in that.

But what that has to do with the area being warlike I dont know.

First you have to determine if the middle east really has been more warlike than anyplace else. European history is warlike and so that of african and east asia. The middlle east has a longer history than any place else, but year for year and pound for pound its not obvious that that region has been more violent than anylplace else over its 5000 year history.

Europe north of the Alps has barely 2000 years of history ( Greece and Italy or more ancient), but those 2000 years were just as lacking in peace as any 2000 out of the 5000 years of Middle Eastern history.

The Middle East isn't really any worse today than Europe was in the 1990s. Does anyone remember the Irish Troubles and the war in Yugoslavia?

to understand the problems in the middle east you need to understand the history. western imperialism/foreign policy played a BIG role in shaping current events.

look at a modern map, then look at this one.

The late Abba Eban of Israel once said: The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Unfortunately for the Palestinians there "leadership" has only one point and one purpose: to destroy the State of Israel and to kill or drive out the Jews in the region. That is not sufficient for making a State and and Nation.

ruveyn

^ and you, as a pro-Israel American (American? Really? ha-ha), you never miss the opportunity to repeat that kind of one-sided-story in every Middle-East related thread (and the view you're talking about is the most extreme Hamas view ,which reflects a part of the Palestinian community and not all of them).

Your ancestors went there for the same purpose, so it's very natural to get a similar reaction.

Why I think middle eastern people are uncivil?

Parents don't teach their children to be good mannered, care for others, preserve the enviroment, help the poor and respect differences. Those and other vaules are simply not there, in alot of cases (not all, of course). I was in America. American people are more civil than Israelis. And if you go to the UK, oh god the gap is so huge. It's kinda like in Borat actually, that's how much the difference is vast.

Also it's not just middle eastern. Like other people in the world are more civil. In every place there are civil and non civil ppl.

The most uncivil people I have ever met are Quebecois French Canadians, and mainland Chinese come in second.

I've never met an uncivil Middle Eastern person. They are modest and peaceful. I don't mean religious extremists but ordinary citizens.

I don't understand the point of this thread. Europeans have been the most warlike people, as both Germany and Britain have attempted to take over the entire world, and the USA is heading in that direction. I can't see what a hot climate or flooding rivers have to do with it.