@Tw0Cr0wsIn context, the orginal disagreement was related to these statements;
The ways children are brought up and educated are out of their control
Out of their control yes, but arbitrary no.
I don't think you can separate them like that. A child's date of birth determines what child-rearing and educational trends they'll be exposed to.
Date of birth does not determine any such thing. Even within the countries listed, the variations in culture within them assure that the child-rearing and educational trends are not uniform. Just the difference between rural and city assures that, therefore making date of birth arbitrary. That's within a single country. It gets much more complicated when considering multiple countries replete with their own variations of the same.
It's not in the child's control, but it is no less arbitrary in effect.
As for Russia being civilized, it has every stage of civilization or lack thereof. As a country, yes they are civilized, but the physical size verses population assures there will be decidedly uncivilized areas within their borders. For that matter, there are still parts of the States that would fit the latter as well. Even the two most populous countries on the planet (India and China) has such areas.
ETA:
All that said, either AJ or I is missing something fundemental here, so I'll let it die rather than carry on with it.