Good God , if either Josh Norman or Dez Bryant could just shut up and play , they might be as good as they act like they are . <| sep |> So you believe it has nothing to do with the fact the west isolated north Korea . Put sanctions on them and surrounded them with their militaries ? Because technically north Korea is still at war with America ? North Korea after the partition of Korea was not surrounded by the west in the same way , say , Cuba was , the USA and most of the west was not an important trading partner with North Korea . Furthermore the earliest documented UN sanctions I can find against North Korea were from 1993 , giving them a fairly long time from the partition of Korea to grow into an economic powerhouse which South Korea already was at this point . North Korea only had the communist block to rely on . The Soviet union didn ' t give a shit about them and China used them as a buffer zone . You don ' t think that maybe Africa is so poor due to the colonisation that split the whole continent . Absolutely not . What did Europe find when they came to Africa south of the Sahara ? They found an incredibly primitive people literally a thousand years behind Europe and Asia at that time . And what did they do ? They turned them into slaves . What happened to Africa under European rule ? It prospered . If you compared Rhodesia under Ian Smith ' s rule to contemporary America or Europe you would find that they offered fairly similar quality of life . You ' d see a country that was a net exporter of food , where starvation was as unknown there as it was in London or Paris . But what happened to Rhodesia after rule reverted back to the Africans when they rejected the Western civilization which made them great ? The people started to starve . Zimbabwe as Rhodesia was later known started having starvation , massive hyperinflation , etc . Despite technology taking a massive leap forward , life in Zimbabwe is worse than it was nearly half a century ago under European rule . They where treated as sub humans . Used as slaves while the white man handled the economy and everything else important . Then the white man left a country full of uneducated people they were refused education in a already modernised world . It ' s not only colonisation . Look at Somalia during the 70 ' s and 80 ' s . Seriously . Image searched it . It looked like Europe . Somalia was a socialist state then . Look at Afghanistan before the CIA put their hands in there . Both countries where doing fine . When the people turned against Siad barre and the Soviet union collapsed the Somalis asked the US for help . The US came with aid relief but later turned it into a military operation . During the 80 ' s the US funded the mujhadeen with weapons and trianing . They then turned into the talibans . The bane of Afghanistan . The British literally cut up Africa with a ruler . Look it up . They used fucking rulers to cut the lands of people up . Which has led to many civil wars . The US has a strict if you are not with us you are against us mentality and any country that does not agree with that will live in exile . The US is not the only trading partner in the world . While you might be able to point to the USA for some of the ills in the mideast and central and south America , there are plenty of places where the USA had little to no involvement . The US is leader in world economy and sets guidelines for the rest of the western world to follow . The west ' s time will pass just like previous global regimes have . China is a good example of a super power in development . Ah , but WHY is China becoming a super power ? Why was China a backwater shithole prior to the 1980 s ? It was because they relied on communism and a backwards culture . What happened when they started rejecting communism ? What happened when they started emulating Western culture ? They started prospering . That ' s not a coincidence , the moment they rejected their broken culture and started emulating Western culture they improved massively . . China is one of the most brutal dictatorships to exist today . What are you talking about ? They are opportunists and a brutal regime that conducts torture . Murders , censorship and spying on its own citizens . Western culture ? They are just like the Soviet union was . How did Japan go from a backwater shithole in the early 19 th century to being on equal footing with America , Russia and Britain in the 1940 s ? It was because its people started rejecting their traditional Japanese culture and started adopting Western culture . Japan was a highly militarised dictatorship in the 40 ' s . They where literally cut off from the rest of world . Dude what are you talking about ? After the bombs America literally forced their system on the Japanese to the point that Japan is a whole other country now . If everyone had the same opportunity tomorrow . The west would have been surpassed by the rest of the world . Only if they adopted Western culture . If everyone tomorrow adopted Western culture , yes , the West would probably be outpaced . If they relied on their traditional culture , no . Pray tell me how the Nazis became so powerful ? Did they have western values ? How was the Soviet union able to be # 2 in the world ever since ww 2 ? It ' s not about culture . Democracy does not mean wealth . Wealth comes from stability and production and non corruption . Whether you are military dictatorship , communist or democracy Democracy is not a key tenant of the Western way of thinking . Yes it is . Stability , production and noncorruption are what happens whenever you adopt a Western way of thinking . Except that has existed before too . Way before the west was even relevant . The western way of thinking involves 1 Individualism over collectivism . Aka capitalism 2 The rule of law , the law exists for all men , no one is above itThat ' s not exclusive to Western thinking 3 Protection of individual rights 4 Property rights