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Comment by inglor_cz | Hacker News Reader

SA is morphing from a medieval theocratic kingdom into a modern authoritarian state with all power concentrated in hands of a single, arguably secular, dictator in front of our eyes.

I suspect we can call this progress, from the 1400s right into the 1930s.

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There was a statement by some Saud or other 10+ years ago about how their modernization plans would appear to be slow to the eyes of westerners, due to the relative tolerances of the populations they lead. (I don't recall the specific individual.)

Believe what you want about this claim, that's a justification for how it goes over there.

If my memoey serves me well, this is almost exact words I heard about SA modernization plan 2-3 years ago.

Ie you can up your anecdata on this from n=1 to... n=1.5, I think.

Oil got more expensive, the Saudi ledership got complacent. Maybe if there's a food crisis they'll wake up, but many people in poorer countries would die, so hopefully not. The sooner we get off oil, the better. Bonus: Iran and Russian leadership is going to be screwed up as well.

How would you argue he is secular? Last time I checked KSA had an official religion, apostasy was punished (in theory) by death and one of its main cities (Mecca) was forbidden to non-muslims.

Religion is used to keep the masses in check but the elites are free to drink and womanize as much as they want.

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