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What do you mean by stone age inhabitants and stone age slaves?
A more interesting question is to what extent the people of Latin America and Eastern Europe have more in common with each other than either with the so-called West during, say, the 1950s-1980s period, and then again during the 1990s to the present day?
Contemporary decision-makers think in terms of their own interests in a series of short-runs. Later, when those series of short-runs become a long-run, historians categorize things into cute little compartments like "civilizations", and they often get it wrong or, in any case, the forward goal posts, so to speak, in the meantime change.
And what happens to the past in the mind's eye of men when the forward goal posts change?
A more interesting question is to what extent the people of Latin America and Eastern Europe have more in common with each other than either with the so-called West during, say, the 1950s-1980s period, and then again during the 1990s to the present day?
Contemporary decision-makers think in terms of their own interests in a series of short-runs. Later, when those series of short-runs become a long-run, historians categorize things into cute little compartments like "civilizations", and they often get it wrong or, in any case, the forward goal posts, so to speak, in the meantime change.
And what happens to the past in the mind's eye of men when the forward goal posts change?
I don't understand the question? Are you asking which culture is more "western" meaning US/Western Europe like Anglosphere and Germanic or Romance, or are you asking which cultures see themselves as closer to the "west?" I think in the first case Latin America is clearly more "western" based on language and religion. But if it's the second part it's going to be Eastern Europe because of the Monroe Doctrine and US meddling in Central and South America.
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Latin America is as much 'western' as northern America is, maybe more in many cases. The 'west' is basically the addition of the romance/catholic and germanic/protestant one. Both were shaped by western christian church for centuries.
For some weird reasons some people still think that 'western' means 'rich' or 'capitalistic'...
Latin America is an offshoot of Western civilization obviously through colonialism but sometimes for whatever reason, geopolitical, cultural or otherwise, there are some people who see it as more separate from the West, when English-speaking people talk about the "West".
Also, Eastern Europe is part of Western Civilization too (Western Christendom, classical Greek and Roman heritage etc.), but again often English-speaking people try and set it apart from the "West" as defined for geopolitical reasons.
Do you think both regions belong equally to the "western world"?
Why do you include the Anglosphere as part of Western civilization but not Latin America? That's quite arbitrary.
Latin America is as much 'western' as northern America is, maybe more in many cases. The 'west' is basically the addition of the romance/catholic and germanic/protestant one. Both were shaped by western christian church for centuries.
For some weird reasons some people still think that 'western' means 'rich' or 'capitalistic'...
Agree. Latin America is closer to Western Europe. Their values, family life, city planning and world references are European. Americans are entirely different from Europe, but they keep on bragging about their Europeaness because racial reasons, that are not determinant.
By the same principle, I don't think that Argentina (received more European immigrants/per capita than the US) is more European than Chile or Peru.
Agree. Latin America is closer to Western Europe. Their values, family life, city planning and world references are European. Americans are entirely different from Europe, but they keep on bragging about their Europeaness because racial reasons, that are not determinant.
By the same principle, I don't think that Argentina (received more European immigrants/per capita than the US) is more European than Chile or Peru.
I disagree. Argentina may by more western than Belarus or Croatia, but in average Eastern Europeans are more western in today standards. An easy example, which population have an easier time to integrate in the US ? Latin Americans or Eastern Europeans ?
Ukraine and Belarus are definitely more Russians than Western. In the Balkan, countries are quite in the middle. But Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Croatia, etc.. Are nowadays western.
The west was defined during the cold war. It was the US and its strong democracies allies (in fact it was the NATO + anglosphere). And Latin America was not included, it was a battlefield of influence between Communists (still in power in some countries) and the US&co. Eastern Europe was in the USSR sphere of influence, so considered East. But since the fall of the USSR all former soviet satellites are becoming liberal, capitalist, atheist, etc.. They are only looking to the West to catch up on all those lost soviets decades. Just look at a young Polish, Hungarian or Lithuanian and tell me the difference with a German. Then take a Brazilian or a Guatemalan..
Before the 90's Latin America was more western, but not any more.
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