Amman, Jordan - Going back to tribal approaches won't help our societies. But imposing Western-style democracies on largely tribal societies won't work either. Societies, communities and nation states need to be given space to find fair, just resolutions to their own problems.
Generally Eastern societies tend to prioritize collective rights (starting from the immediate family and then the extended family and then even the tribe and nation) rather than individual rights. For many especially poor communities, a collective approach helps out the individual in times of emergency and provides a social safety net.
Young people today are demanding individual rights but still need that safety net for basics like education and health. In addition, they need it to address the major problem in many of our societies -- namely unemployment. Wars and violence skews budgets toward the purchase of weapons, which means less money for social affairs. We need to find a proper equilibrium between collective and individual rights and we need to reduce military spending and use that money for social issues.
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