I know an SF guy who’s done several tours in Afghanistan. He told me there are places so remote that when they went there the tribesmen thought they were Soviets. They never knew the Russians had left. Other places even further off the beaten path had never seen an outsider in the memory of anyone living. They had completely missed the events of the last 30 years—Russian invasion, Taliban, everything.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they were so isolated they knew nothing about the conflicts nor hitech before we arrived and afterwards were now addicted to computer games, bartering opium for X-Box’s.
No doubt that most people couldn't tell you what year that it was and besides having smokeless powder firearms, live like they have for the past 3000 years.
Interesting. I remember reading an article in a gun magazine back in the 1970s where the author stated that many tribesmen in Afghanistan were still using flintlocks at that time.
Did they think he was the reincarnated Alexander?
re: “The Man who would be King”.
There are many places in Afghanistan and Pakistan where few of the people have ever been so far as the next village. These people are more cut off from the outside world than those on the most remote Pacific island.