Maia wrote: ↑Fri Jun 02, 2023 8:05 amIsrael is a thoroughly Western society, and doesn't seem to be in decline, either. Perhaps that's the answer, having a common sense of purpose.
The Jewish sense of purpose is based on fundamentalist, Abrahamic religious zealotry. The Orthodoxy over there, instills deep metaphysical ideology into their children. Foreign Jews tend to call themselves "Secularist" and Atheist/Agnostic, despite their Hebrew relatives linked to their religion.
The reason why Jews are motivated differently than other peoples, tribes, societies, and cultures, is because of their historical antagonism, mostly between the Romans, and then the Persians and Arabs.
You claim to be a native British Druid. Is your religious fanaticism and zealotry any different than theirs? Except, the Abrahamic religion is totalitarian, prophetic, and apocalyptic. Thus their ideology is fit for large, sprawling, warring Empires. This is why Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are the popular majority. It is why a small, pagan operative, is debased, baseless, and non-competitive. These ideologies are a battle of few versus many.
Most people choose Quantity over Quality, by default. What is popular, is true, to them.
I don't think of Israel as "Western". Why do you?