You Have to Pick a Side Eventually: The Case for the West

The world is splitting up into three major blocs. Global West is defined as the USA-led order which includes Canada, Japan, most of Europe, Australia. This is versus The Global East of China/Russia/Iran etc. and the Global South, made up of India, Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America. 

I’m pretty critical of what’s happening in the Global West in the recent few decades. The Global West has been the dominant power since 1945. We have all seen the rank stupidity, the gross incompetence and open grifting of our political class. Don’t get me started on the covid lockdowns, insane woke/DEI BS, the cultural wars and badly executed ESG energy policies aka virtue signaling that got Europe into the energy mess they are in. 

For those who don’t pay attention to the news, Europe ditched nuclear energy to focus on natural gas from Russia a decade back. Fast forward to 2022, they are burning coal and wood and paying for far more expensive gas, where the average citizen is paying anywhere between 2-5x on energy costs of what they were paying a few years ago. 

I understand the criticism of hypocrisy of the American led order. Just read “Gangsters of Capitalism” or “Confessions of An Economic Hitman” or look at the catastrophe and wake of the Iraq War 2 and Afghanistan. We espouse these incredible ideals yet we don’t follow or act on them consistently.

The Global West has done some awful things and is far from perfect. But all things being equal, I’d much rather live in a USA led order than one by China. You can talk about the USA restricting freedom, abusing its reserve currency status, randomly overthrowing governments around the globe or the USA being evil. 

Yet what Russia has wrought in the war is pretty horrid. It goes beyond the terrible invasion of UKraine. The Russian-inflicted horrors in Syria, Chechnya, Georgia. Or ask any Eastern European outside of Serbia on whether they would want to be under their rule. 

One also needs to look at China had done: what happened in Hong Kong in 2019 over the democratic movement crackdowns, the ongoing genocide in Tibet and Xingjiang, or the severe Covid lockdowns which were substantially worse than in anywhere else in the world. 

Look at the implementation of social credit scores and lack of freedom of speech in the Global East (China/Russia etc). At least you can criticize the government in the West. Try doing that in China. 

If the USA, Europe and Canada/Australia are so bad, why do the elites around the world send their kids and families to go to school and buy properties there. 

If China or Russia are so much better, why aren’t immigrants from around the world  barging down the door of these places? Well this is what is still happening in the USA. Most migrants still see the USA as the shining city on the hill. 

Love it or leave it. That’s what I say. And for those libertarians out there, if you think you can hide in a world run by China/ Russia good luck with that! Go live in Dubai or Singapore or Switzerland. But your choices for top tier and world class places outside of the West goes down severely after these places. 

You will have to pick a side eventually. So think carefully and act accordingly. No decision is a decision. Those who are unaligned and neutral will end up being hated by all sides as no one trusts a coward. Or maybe better said by Robert Greene: “Everyone admires the bold, no one honors the timid.”