Decades (centuries?) of having to deal with feelings of inadequacy and inferiority have a tendency to build up. When in doubt, long for the days of yore where your people were powerful and mattered. I also think their is a quite a bit of a Luddite mentality going where modern technological and progressive growth is seen as a creation of the west to them. The west has kept them down, so to counteract that you try and revive an old model that shuns that. It's no wonder it's kind of an umbrella ideology because it represents the varied backgrounds of its members who appear to strive for something elusive and somewhat nebulous. They want to be powerful and count, not background flotsam and jetsam in their various societies.
Just give them all a cookie and teach them the philosophies of Stuart Smiley. Maybe a pat on the back or a hug might help, actually, cancel that last one, they may be strapped with tnt.