How do you define 'the West'?

Guest   Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:56 pm GMT
Does this include Japan and Russia?
Guest   Thu Sep 04, 2008 3:40 pm GMT
No. The West ends at the international date line (e.g. crossing the border from Alaska to Russia). Just West of that you have the far East.
JT   Thu Sep 04, 2008 3:50 pm GMT
I define the West or the Western world as the countries of Western Europe and its descendant countries who share similar traditions, values, and religions, and have embraced political ideologies based on liberal democracy, personal liberty, human rights, and gender equality. Japan and Russia may have "western" elements in their society, but I don't consider them part of the "West".
Guest   Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:13 pm GMT
I'd define the West to include Russia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, and perhaps assorted islands.
(parts of Antarctica, too?)

The non-West mainly includes Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Guest   Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:59 pm GMT
"gender equality"
So catholic countries can not be a part of the western world.
Guest   Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:37 pm GMT
What gender inequality exists in catholic countries'?
Guest   Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:10 pm GMT
Gender equality is a Catholic concept. Consider that these notions were created by Catholic freemasons wo opposed the Catholic faith but were culturally Catholic. Big ideals like the redemption of Humanity by bringing equality , hapyness and tolerance by an illustrated elite usually are born in Catholic nations . Just consider France for example, the progressive country par excellence. Protestant countries tend are more attached to tradition and don't like big changes.
Guest   Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:52 pm GMT
The catholic church treats women as wombs and servants. They are not allowed to be priests. They are encouraged to stay home and be housewives rather than to have a career.
As a result and as a reaction to the totalitarianism and repression of catholic church there have been a number of movements in catholic countries, as mentioned above.
All of them; renaissance, French revolution etc. were anticatholic, though not necessarily antireligious.
Protestant countries are more stable politically and people more inclined to respect traditional values; the reason for that being the fact they do not share this fundamental inner trauma with catholics.
Guest   Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:28 pm GMT
So Latin Ameria is not part of the West? What are they?

The West is only the US, Canada and Western Europe?
Guest   Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:35 pm GMT
"the west" is one of those terms that has lost all meaning through ambiguous usage.
Guest   Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:27 am GMT
Тhe West is the USA and all of its bootlickers.
Uriel   Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:13 am GMT
<<I'd define the West to include Russia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand>>

That sounds about right. Mainly western and central Europe and its former colonies in the Americas and Oceania, who share a number of common cultural roots and philosophies. Eastern Europe and Russia aren't really "western" in most senses, and Japan might be "westernized" to an extent, but isn't truly western. I guess it and countries like it would have the same relationship to the west as Hellenic lands had to ancient Greece -- they were superficially influenced by the culture of Greece, but had their own underlying cultures that were from a very differnt tradition.
Damian in Edinburgh   Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:31 am GMT
The West is that point on the horizon where the sun sets each evening - an event not seen all that often with absolute clarity here in the UK but it still gets dark afterwards.
Guest   Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:52 am GMT
Russia is not in 'the West'. In Russia 'the West' can be an insult.
Dude Who Knows   Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:46 pm GMT
"The West" can have different meaninings. The concept is closely if not exactly linked to that of "Western Civilization." That is, the lineage of culture that began with Greece and continued with Rome and then the rise of European Christianity. However, the West as a concept did not really occur until the East-West Schism in Christianity in 1054, when it began to be used to distinguish nations aligned with Roman Catholic Church from those aligned with the Eastern Orthodox Church. Thus, the original West was distinguished from the East roughly along the present borders of Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Croatia.

With the rise of Peter the Great from the late 17th to early 18th centuries, Russia began to identify more with the West, and the czar began a policy of Westernization that continued as Russia began to assert itself as a European power. From this point up until the Russian Revolution, the cultural divisions between Eastern and Western Europe were much smaller. After the Protestant Reformation they could no longer be distinguished by their adherence to one of two forms of Christianity. The primary difference was the continued use of serfs in Eastern Europe. However, the notion of Europe, home of colonial powers, was stronger than that of "the West."

The West re-emerged as a major cultural concept came with the Cold War. It was then used to distinguish (Western) liberal democracies from countries practicing Soviet-style communism (or simply dominated by the Soviets). It's usage became closely linked to the countries that made up NATO, plus Australia and New Zealand. This meaning is the primary basis of its modern usage.

Today "the West" always includes Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. As form Soviet bloc countries adopt democracy and then often join NATO and/or the EU, they are typically included in the West. Latin America considers itself part of the West as it is Christian and derives much of its culture from Europe. However, its relative lack poltical and economic stability often leads to its exclusion in most definitions.

Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are often linked to West in politcal and economic terms, but not having a closely linked cultural history they are not included in its definition. Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey are or have been at times tenuously associated with the West as well.