KingMamba
ELITE MEMBER
![](/styles/default/xenforo/ranks/airchiefmarshal.jpg)
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
- Messages
- 12,546
- Reaction score
- 7
- Country
- Location
No that's not it IMO. In the West you had the same backward way of life. Women were second rate citizens, morality was enforced etc... It's all down to the progress the Western World has made in the past 3-4 centuries and the shift in culture as a whole. I mean you go back 500 years and religion dictated modesty in the West too.
In the end there's no such a thing as "true individualism." Even the West is collective. It's just that in Western societies collective strength and unity is considered useless without an individual having the right to liberty, life and freedoms of choice/expression etc... Collectivism is more organic here and it's achieved on its own. In the East it's enforced by the state and society itself.
Religion still dictates modesty in many parts of the west it is just not in government therefore not enforced. I would not say western way of life is greater than eastern way of life, both are fine the problem is one side does not believe in allowing people the choice to make up their minds for themselves. I agree with your last statement but I do not think it is a lack on part of eastern society that there is not an emphasis on liberty, life, and freedom of expression but rather the fact that many of the state institutions in the East rely on a heavy amount of control in the public lives of their citizens in order to prolong their rule over the people. Even in relatively successful countries like say China or Russia the state is heavy handed.