Re: Part of what i think

Ralph,

In that respect the hard sciences are easier: the path of an asteroid is not influenced by its feelings. It is computationally harder. The study of human behavior is arguably more difficult because of that reason - unpredictability. The assumption of rationality hardly holds in developed countries with an education populace, much less in developing countries.

"with completely different cultures and levels of civilization." Sure.

It simply means what it says. PNG is a country made up of 700+ languages, each group with very different ideas about things. Sure there is commonality among everyone because of the simple fact that we are all humans, however there are very clear differences which make a one size fits all approach bound to fail. For example, and I am using a very obvious example here that would be familiar to most PNGns, generally speaking in the Highlands many disputes are resolved with recourse to group violence. This is not generally the case elsewhere in the country. Implications: this means that one would need a stronger government in various places in the Highlands to displace the rule of payback with the rule of law, than one would need elsewhere.

What do I mean by different levels of civilization? Well let's go back a step further and define what I mean by civilization - By "civilization" I mean a state where free men are able to live in harmony with each other, pursuing their own interests without fear of arbitrary violence and with recourse to law as opposed to vigilante "justice" as a means to settle disputes. I also mean that it is a state where there is a general civility among persons and that personal, social, cultural and intellectual development is encouraged.

That is how I understand civilization, and when one applies this definition, one can clearly see that different people-groups within the country are farther along this path than others. It is not a matter of "life experiences," this is - as Ralph says, a hard fact.