The West and the Rest

This essay highlights the many challenging aspects facing what the author believes is a frightened western world unwilling to shift into an appropriate "post-Cold War era" mindset more suited to the changing world it dealt a great hand in making. The author does this by describing how the west "has created a universe in which 'interconnectedness' will be the order of the day" and yet still "has a strong impulse to shut the doors" on the rest of the world due to a simple fear of competition.

To further illustrate this issue, the author points out several ways in which other countries have evolved to look to countries like Japan instead of the U.S. as economic examples because of the current state it has put itself in. As though to rub salt into the wound, the author also notes how the west seemingly only interacts with certain countries when it is convenient for them. I can see how this would be a common view in other countries when even here, some of us believe this is the case. While I could stand to agree with the author, it also feels that there is something missing in this argument.

The way the essay ends almost makes it feel as though it is too late for the western world or that, at the very least, it is getting uncomfortably close to that point. However, though the west might have all of the problems outlined in the essay, it is still in a position where it can do something