How Far Are You Western-ized ?

[KirinMan]

So, how broad is "white" or "caucasian" defined by you? Does it include Arabs? Semites? Hispanics? Slavs? Or is it limited to Aryans

Let me be more specific, I think that when I discuss the west with Japanese people many, probably most, but not all, think of the west as caucasian.

Caucasian means just that nothing more nothing less.

 

[aaltunn]

1) You live in a country that has been systematically denying a genocide. You could have been indoctrinated from birth, for all I know. I'd like to believe that I live in a country in which an open and honest discussion about subjects like these is available. Most people and scientist in western countries, Russia and even a growing number of people in your country believe that this was indeed genocide.
2) So you agree that Turkey has a problem when is comes to Human Rights?
3)This is the first time I've read anyting about a massacre of Turks by the EOKA. The invasion of parts of Cyprus by Turkey was a cunning way to gain territory. Claiming to uphold the Treaty of Guarantee.

Dear ludo,

if you have any judgments about Cyprus you should have studied all details.

EOKA was an organization trying to perform the ENOSIS -the plan of unifying cyprus to Greece-disregarding the turkish residents-generally fighting british as well as turks

EOKA-B was an terrorist organization who massacred many Turks brutally.They were backed up by the Junta of Greece who were in power from 1967 to 1974 -Makarios named them as terrorists and grave diggers of enosis because they were so brutal -

see the link with photos - murder of civilian turks :

Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos

The EOKA-B who already infiltrated to the police and the national guards overthrew the Makarios government.Makarios flew for his life and Turkey landed on cyprus making the Junta collapse in Greece.

So brutal massacres againts took place againt turkish people of cyprus starting from 1955 - to Avoid such happenings UN Troops was sent to Cyprus at 1963 but the un that did not work.

see the secret AKRITAS PLAN - planning of the massacre and total annihilation of turks in cyprus and the ways of acting easily - was printed at 21 April 1966 at PATRIS Newspaper - perhaps some Greek people with common sense just revealed the plan - see the english link

http://www.cyprus-conflict.net/akritas_plan.htm

the massacres done in Cyprus were well documented by western press - you should be able gather information easily - and you should do as well before making such judgments.

thanks

 

[ludoNL]

You might not have noticed, but a) I left this discussion completely a while ago. b) The discussion has been shifted back to the actual topic.

 

[aaltunn]

You might not have noticed, but a) I left this discussion completely a while ago. b) The discussion has been shifted back to the actual topic.

yes - sorry for that -

i did not want to abuse the actual topic

but please be sure you have studied details before making major judgments

thanks

 

[Aerain]

If by "Western-ization" you mean materialism then I would agree with you, it does corrupt. But it is not like as if the japanese culture will completely disappear because we eat american food and watch american movie. I don't know if anyone would agree, but people these days forget about our most fundamental values; family, love, friends because we want to have the best clothes, bigger house, faster cars etc... That is something that really depresses me these days...

 

[AladdinSane]

I think westernization is not a threat as long as the people are educated, and the native culture and lifestyle are preserved. That way the desired elements of the West can be integrated into the local culture without causing cultural erosion. Japan seems to be quite successfull in that, and unfortunately the sort of people who immerse themselves in material things (like tv shows, and shopping) and rarely think about greater matters exist everywhere in the world. This is not caused by westernization but by insufficient education or lack of education altogether, and it is commerce that takes advantage of that problem. So, I don't think there is a threat for Japan in particular.

 

[Sukotto]

East, West, Orient, Occident

the late Edward Said wrote a book titled "Orientalism"
I've not read it but wikipedia has this to say:

"In his book Said suggests that all discourse, particularly discourse about other cultures, is inherently ideological.

What Said attempts to show is that this discourse actually creates (rather than examines or describes) a palpable divide between East and West."

Said wrote:
"My whole point about this system is not that it is a misrepresentation of some Oriental essence ﾂ― in which I do not for a moment believe ﾂ― but that it operates as representations usually do, for a purpose, according to a tendency, in a specific historical, intellectual, and even economic setting" (p. 273).

Another book, this one in which I am currently reading "Iran A People Interrrupted" by Hamid Dabashi often quotes Said and
also writes that the divide between "tradition" and "modernity" is also an artificial creation.

And uses a phrase "Colonial Modernity"

which refers to the paradoxical reception of the European project of Enlightenment modernity by the rest of the world, whereby non-Europeans are assigned subjectness precisely at the moment of the denial of their historical agency.[6] In his essay "For the Last Time: Civilizations", he has also posited the binary opposition between ﾂ"Islam and the Westﾂ" as a major narrative strategy of raising a fictive centre for European modernity and lowering the rest of the world as peripheral to that centre.[7]

Apparently the Middle East as well as East Asia, and points in between have historically been called "the Orient". In the US it is primarily East Asia. Said writes from the perspective of the Middle East, but the argument is the same.



Some would label me "anti-american".
For ex: I am not proud that I am rich (relatively) precisely because of the rest of the world's poverty and in no small part policies of the US on behalf of transnational corporations.
So maybe they label me "anti-western" as well.
It's an ideological construct.

 

[Sirius2B]

One thing I hear from some people visiting Japan, is that Western-ization. One transformation under effects of another always corrupts, I'd not like friends from Western countries take this offensive.
A solid and rich culture is maintained by a traditionalist society to a degree. I have always seen the Japanese people being hard-working, attached to their culture hence traditions very closely, highly regarding virtues like respect, effort and peace.
Since my homeland is being torn apart by imported Western way of life, brands and the irrelevant loyalty created to them, totally corrupting TV programs and shows, the process of cultural genocide by being exposed to things we never had before due to our cultural bakground; I'm concerned about the same for Japan.
How do you, especially native Japanese friends see about the situation? Is it how you were or is there a change in progress that is disturbing ?

AladdinSane
I think westernization is not a threat as long as the people are educated, and the native culture and lifestyle are preserved. That way the desired elements of the West can be integrated into the local culture without causing cultural erosion. Japan seems to be quite successfull in that, and unfortunately the sort of people who immerse themselves in material things (like tv shows, and shopping) and rarely think about greater matters exist everywhere in the world. This is not caused by westernization but by insufficient education or lack of education altogether, and it is commerce that takes advantage of that problem. So, I don't think there is a threat for Japan in particular.

Not only to swallow the pill of "Westerness" as a goal is stupid and corrupting... but also, dangerous.
The "West" is preparing "Regimen Change" in Turkey... so watch out, and spread this message among your friends...
(You could see the whole context in the www.atimes.com, under the series "Germany the Re-engineered Ally").

Refitting Turkey for its proper role
One of the most interesting policy initiatives of the new German-French tandem may appear to be a sideshow but is, in fact, emblematic of the shape of things to come: replacing the EU horizon for Turkey with one more fitting for an oriental strategic asset.
Merkel and Sarkozy are now jointly leading an EU-wide coalition dead set against making good on the decades-old promise for the integration of Turkey into the EU as soon as it is able to implement the acquis communautaire (total body of EU law). With the election of Sarkozy the "open-ended" accession negotiations have no chance of remaining open-ended and with his help Merkel will be able to outmaneuver her Social Democratic baggage while still insisting on negotiating with Turkey in good faith.
For Merkel, Sarkozy and their civilizational warriors, Turkey has no European "vocation", for cultural, Christian, and occidental reasons. Merkel promises, instead, a "special relationship" and Sarkozy proposes to sponsor a "Mediterranean community", anchored on Turkey, Israel and Morocco, as a geopolitical barrier against African immigrants, Islamic fundamentalists, and as an additional venue for Israeli ambitions.
The question, though, is how to make Turkey give up its EU aspirations and fall into line with whatever plans are made for it. And the main problem is, in fact, that Turkey's most committed Europeanists are to be found in the moderately conservative and moderately religious center-right Justice and Development (AKP) party, the first governing party after World War II which is fairly clean, rather competent economically, and tenaciously digging at the immensely corrupt and criminal "deep state": the conglomerate of politicians, military intelligence, special police squads, and their legions of cut-outs, cut-throats, and patsies, the Turkish mafia, Grey Wolves (ie, rightwing terrorists), feudal landowners, and associated business ventures. This government is trying to drain a swamp in which German intelligence was up to its knees since the days of its being tasked with chaperoning the "Trident" intelligence coordination between the Turkish, Iranian, and Israeli intelligence services.
Turkey's "deep state" has been (and, to some degree, still is) the enabling environment - and with Israel, the Eastern Mediterranean hub - for the interbreeding of intelligence, the security business, terrorist groups for hire, and mafia operations. It has produced the strangest, rather frightening, but most lucrative, hybrids between black operations, subversion, targeted killings and kidnappings, and the whole panoply of the drug, protection, organ harvesting, black medical research and pharmacology, the emigration, slave labor, weapons and technology, counterfeiting, money laundering rackets. Joined to Israel's netherworld, its reach extends from the Arab countries to Africa, from Russia and the CIS to western and Central Asia, and, of course, to Europe.
This is what the Turkish government - with a strong popular mandate - is trying to reform in order to conform to the requirements of EU membership. The AKP is, for good reasons, strongly committed to the EU: by itself it would be quite unable to make its sanitation mandate work, whatever the strength of its electoral base. It is only via the EU that it can even approach the holy of holies, the constitutional Praetorian prerogative of the Turkish military. Its defenders - the parties of the secular "White Turks" (ie, the urban elites) who regard the reforms the EU accession process imposes as endangering their ownership of the state - are precisely those Sarkozy and Merkel are relying on to derail Turkey's EU prospects.
The White Turks' "deep state" is already swinging into action: from a spate of high-profile murders with an ostensible "fundamentalist" background, to the threat of a military coup d'état, from the demonstrations with the malicious slogan "neither
Continued 1 2 3 4 5
... Sharia, nor putsch" (trying to taint the AKP with the fundamentalist brush), to the the collusion between acting President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and the Constitutional Court (sworn to uphold the military prerogatives) in provoking a constitutional crisis to block the election of the popular Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to the presidency.
Since Turkey's main Western allies are decidedly unhappy with the successes of reform and the growing self-confidence of the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Merkel and her cohorts are engaged in a rather vicious game of delegitimizing Turkish aspirations through veiled threats and humiliations. It is not only the moving goal posts game that Turkey has to negotiate.
It is the kind of cued European discussion that says in effect, "We will make sure to prevent the EU membership of Turkey" (whatever the domestic repercussions in the several million strong Turkish community in Germany), that is designed to coerce the AKP into giving up. There is also the tidy side-payment to consider, namely, the domestic delegitimization of the AKP and the reempowerment of the deep state, now represented by the Nationalist Movement (MHP) party and Turkey's oldest political party, the Turkish Republican Party (CHP) that has served Western geopolitics oh-so-well.
Tying the Turkish government into knots, the US government and many of the European media are lauding the constitutional vocation of the Turkish military to protect the secular state (implying again that the AKP is intent on turning Turkey into a sharia state) while, at the same time, European politicians raise the specter of the threat of military intervention in Turkish politics as proof that Turkey is not EU material. In the same fashion, "high European officials" do background briefings on how a military campaign against the PKK in Iraq would strain NATO and end Turkey's accession negotiations because it would be proof that the Turkish government - which is against intervention - cannot control its military. It is a perfidious set-up because the US and Israel (with German support) are doing everything to strengthen and use the Iranian PKK network for its proxy campaign against Tehran.
But why are these forces fighting so hard to terminate Turkey's EU prospects?
The answer lies not in the new conservative/right-wing obsession with occidental identity politics or with the enlargement blues. The US was denied the use of Turkish territory for attacking Iraq from the north; Turkey insisted, instead, on its Montreux Treaty prerogative of refusing a permanent American naval squadron in the Black Sea. It has rather relaxed political, and high-growth economic relations with its neighbors, Syria and Iran. It has been accused of dragging its feet on the Nabucco gas pipeline, designed to bring Central Asian gas to Europe and to circumvent the Russian pipeline system.
It has, in fact, excellent political and economic relations with Russia while having gone out of the 1990s business of subverting the Central Asian republics. Furthermore, it angered Israel with its discreet contacts with Hamas and by cooling down the political scope of the military and intelligence relationship (as well as its attendant business opportunties). And it hurt powerful interests with a more serious engagement with Interpol.
In other words, the AKP government is striving to scale down the use of Turkey as a strategic platform for all sorts of mayhem, focusing instead quite successfully on regional trade and investment opportunities to maintain Turkey's economic growth - thus stabilizing a growing middle class of "black Turks". This approach, though, crimps US efforts to expand the strategic threat against Iran. Even more importantly, it limits American access to the Caucasus and Central Asia and hampers its plans for pulling the Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan into a permanent and much more extensive military relationship.
In sum: though prudent enough to have accomodated the Turkish military's usual level of cooperation with Western (US, Israeli, and German) operations against its neighbors, it still disregarded the demands of the Western grand strategy. Its policies did nothing to help in the "great game" of turning the Caucasus and Central Asia into a lever to be used against Russia and China. Neither did the Turkish government do enough for the shorter-term payoff, ie, gaining control over Central Asian oil and gas. All of this did not win the Turkish government friends in the right places. It set itself up, instead, for some variant of a regime-change operation in which the campaign against Turkey's EU aspirations will play a pivotal role.
Though the Turkish military is always good for a coup d'etat, it may be difficult to do it this time without an inopportune level of violence ("Chileanization") since the AKP won the elections resoundingly. There are other options available that might teach the forces of Turkish reform lessons about red lines and overreaching. A short walk down memory lane might illustrate what is possible.
One of the most successful - and "blackest" - of US-British "black operation" against a Western, albeit neutral, country was carried out in first half of the 1980s. In 2000, none other than Reagan's secretary of defense, Caspar Weinberger, declassified it in an interview with Swedish TV in the context of an investigation into the affair of the "Soviet submarines".
Then Swedish prime minister Olaf Palme was a real thorn in Western flesh. Apart from his backing for the Afrincan National Congress and the Palestine Liberation Organization, he was very vocal in his criticism of the increasingly dangerous American confrontation policies towards the Soviet Union. His stance enjoyed widespread support within the Swedish population. This changed rather dramatically with the worldwide frenzy about "the Soviet aggression of neutral Sweden", when Swedish territorial waters were repeatedly "violated by Soviet submarines" and by landings of "Soviet special forces" on the Swedish coast. These "incursions" stopped with the still unresolved murder of Palme in 1986, despite two unsuccessful attempts to convict a man named Christer Pettersson for the crime.
With a pleased smirk, Weinberger confirmed that there was nothing Soviet in the violation of Swedish territorial waters (the Soviets "didn't have the capabilities"). There were, instead, routine exercises, "between the Swedish navy and the American and British navies and since they were routine, the Swedish admiral responsible saw obviously no need to inform his superiors or his subordinates about the nature of the "enemy".
It was, in fact, not quite a "regime change", but a joint US-UK operation together with the top brass of the Swedish navy and Swedish intelligence, conducted against the foreign policy of the Swedish government. Since then Sweden has been rather careful not to challenge American policies - with the exception perhaps of the very popular Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, in line to become the next prime minister. She was stabbed to death in 2003 by a mentally disturbed young immigrant.
At the time, such operations brought the world close to the brink of nuclear war. The Soviets understandably saw this as a crucial
indicator that the US was preparing its allies, and battling with a powerful peace movement, for nuclear preemption against the "increasingly aggressive" and "brazen" Soviet Union.
A variant of such an operation today, though sure to have its own blowbacks, would certainly not involve that kind of risk. It would also take into account that the Turkish military and intelligence are not as monolithic as they once were: there is kind of nationalist reaction to the easy contempt with which they are taken for granted. But it would change Turkey's political horizon for good: a policy subjected to a permanent "strategy of tension", countering democratic aspirations with the power of the deep state. And from a certain perspective, this is an eminently desirable outcome. It would make Turkey the grateful recipient of Sarkozy's idea of a Mediterranean community and Merkel's notion of a special relationship.

Please spread this exceprt among your friends.
Regards.

 

[tombo]

in my opinion, japanese people are not so westernized. Of course they too something strong from western countries but they really have their own way of life and this "westernization" is just convenient.

 

[FrustratedDave]

Oh crap... and I thought it was the other way around.

I hear lots of people taliking about "westernization", but what is this phenomen? I suppose the inffluence of Japanese or Chinese food in America ,Australia and Europe should be considered "easternization" ? How many sushi trains do you see these days? But, I don't see many people complaining about them, I wonder why that is? (driping with sarcasm)

Could it be that places like Europe, America ect , are more able to accept change in their society? Or is this the problem in itself?

Times change, people change, the world changes , whether it be for the better I do not know, but it is a fact and the sooner you realise that there is no big conspiracy to deprive a country of its values, the sooner you will realise that it is infact your own country or should I say people as a whole making these choices. Remember no one is forcing levis jeans or Mc Donalds down anyones throat, if they didn't sell they would not be there.

There are only a few things that is common to most countries and a big one is money, this is what makes the world go round.

 

[Murs]

Westernisation, is almost synonymous with materialism, well its a major part of it.

I think why westerner's don't complain about Chinese food or Japanese technology is because they don't, also consume Asian culture or values etc, only the convenient i.e. fast moving consumer goods.

Also I'd like the echo FrustratedDave in that its all mainly down to money, if Italy were the world power for over 50 years it will be their cultural exports that will in our faces, why? Because they have the financial backing to do so and exploit (general) ignorance.

 

[MadamePapillon]

Murs makes an interesting point. While some people have complained about the sudden influx of asian this and that, from anime to the astounding numbers of asian resturaunts you can find at any street corner, most people don't really care. Why? Because ultimately it's not changing the fabric of our society. Our values, customs and way of life remain the same even as we are being surrounded by asian influences.

On the other hand, asian countries have experienced an upheaval from the 'western invasion'. Governments have changed, ways of living, eating, thinking, even the way they get married is changing as they conform to a 'western' way of life.

I don't know why that is but it's ignorant to blame westerners for this change. We don't go to Japan and force them to eat at MacDonalds or get married in a white wedding dress or wear western name brands. They choose to do this out of their own free will. There are plently of countries that have stayed true to their own cultures and values even while being surrounded by foreign infulences. Asia is everywhere here in Canada yet we're not going out of our way to adopt asian customs and values.

What I'm wondering is, why, with all their rich cultural background is Japan so eager to put it aside in favor of copying the west (especially America), whereas we don't have half the history but are just fine to keep what we do have alive and well?

 

[kireikoori]

So, how broad is "white" or "caucasian" defined by you? Does it include Arabs? Semites? Hispanics? Slavs? Or is it limited to Aryans?

lol, there are Slavs who consider themselves Aryan.
Aryan Terrorism music, videos, stats, and photos | Last.fm

Aryan was a term adopted by Nazis used to separate culture that was semetic in origin from Indo(Indian)-European culture. To my knowledge the first use of the term Aryan in this way was by Helena Blavatsky. Since the Nazi party was very anti-Semitic this was a useful term for them to separate their European culture from Semitic Jewish culture.
Plenty of people other than Scandinavians have used the word Aryan to describe themselves. There as Slavic Neo-Nazis as well as Japanese Neo-Nazis and Indian Neo-Nazis. Savitri Devi was Southern European Neo-Nazi and her husband was Asit Krishna Mukherji, a Bengali Neo-Nazi.

 

[Murs]

It's pretty sad that values liek the way you marry even, are being changed. Like I said already, it's imo down to mainly financial strength, thus making American and European things "cooler" to put it crudely.

 

[SushiShin]

everyone is a little bit westernized, but not FULLY Westernized!

nobody can't denies that he/she has something picked up of the West.

even i can't deny

わたしはばか

 

[The7thSamurai]

I was disappointed when I first arrived in Japan how "westernised" it was. While I found their obsession a little flattering, in a way it was rather sad and pathetic. However, the more I got to know the country and the people, the more I realised that the restaurants and name brands and music was really just an outside shell, their true "Japaneseness" eventually shone through. In my opinion, in a certain way their obsession with all things western was kind of a reflection of their national character.

 

[A ke bono kane kotto]

Since my homeland is being torn apart by imported Western way of life, brands and the irrelevant loyalty created to them, totally corrupting TV programs and shows, the process of cultural genocide by being exposed to things we never had before due to our cultural bakground

I don't understand. You're from Turkey, aren't you ? Turkey is almost a Western country. In the antiquity, it was Magna Grecia (Greater Greece ?). Greece is a western country. Many people spoke Greek in Turkey until 1923. In the south of Italy where my family is from many people are Greek roots. It's the same in Turkey. If I feel Western, it is also because of my ancestors' blood and history. You should feel very western. In fact Turkish people are among the oldest westerners in the world ! You should be ashamed to be ashamed of western culture !!!

]I'm concerned about the same for Japan

Japan is fine. Nobody forces western culture on them.

I hear lots of people taliking about "westernization", but what is this phenomen? I suppose the inffluence of Japanese or Chinese food in America ,Australia and Europe should be considered "easternization" ? How many sushi trains do you see these days? But, I don't see many people complaining about them, I wonder why that is? (driping with sarcasm).

Haha ! Good point ! There are much more Asian restaurants here than McDonald's ! Yes, the West is becoming as much easternised as the East is becoming westernised ! That's globalisation ! Only Muslim countries are in a time-warp bubble.

 

[Murs]

A ke bono kane kotto, please read my first post regarding what you said about restaurants, let me know what you think.


On another matter, I think that "Western" really needs to be defined properly here. I think most in the west don't really have culture at all, rather just have behavioural traits but very little values apart from "free" speech etc. So westernisation=break down of own culture? as we in manly parts of europe and america lack culture.

 

[kireikoori]

To me terms like Eastern and Western have always been weird.
What's Western religion? Wikipedia describe it as Abrahamic religion, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
So then what is Norse, Celtic and other Pre-Christian European religion. Well...Danu in Celtic religion is the same as the Danu in Vedic religion. So perhaps pre-Christian Europe is Eastern religion-wise.

Eastern and Western are terms that are easy to say, and are thusly flung around without much thought, but are hard to define.

 

[Pachipro]

What I'm wondering is, why, with all their rich cultural background is Japan so eager to put it aside in favor of copying the west (especially America), whereas we don't have half the history but are just fine to keep what we do have alive and well?

Alot of it has to do with Hollywood and what they see in the movies and on TV and from music. As long as these parts of the US/European culture continue to pull in hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, people will want to emulate them, not just the Japanese.

While not being a Christian and donning a white wedding dress and tux and getting "married" in a church, the Japanese consider themselves "cool" (kakuii) to be emulating western (US/European) culture as murs pointed out above.

If you live in Japan, how many times have you heard "kakuii" being said to a person who was dressed as a rapper, surfer, tennis player (even though they may have never surfed or played tennis in their life) or wore some other kind of western dress that is considered trendy? And we all know how important it is to be trendy in Japan. It's almost an obsession to be as westernized as possible.

Does it mean the Japanese are being westernized and losing their vast and storied culture?? I don't know, but it is kind of sad to see some of the Japaneseness being erased from Japanese culture. Most modern condos and houses today have but one, maybe two, Japanese rooms with tatamis. Back in the day it was common for the vast majority of people to dress in kimino on New Years Day, but there are less and less people wearing them vs the past.

Most Japanese today eat a western breakfast and forgo the more healthier Japanese one, but this has more to do with advertising. Still, it is taking a little more each day from the culture.

I am not familiar with the younger generation and how they live anymore, but to me the Japanese around my own age and my friends, although they may be westernized on the outside, are still very Japanese on the inside and have not changed over the years. They still follow tradition and culture and have a kind of disdain for the younger people that do not follow tradition by getting married in western wear in churches and live in western style houses and apartments and such and forgo the wearing of traditional dress during the holidays.

Maybe we can have some input from some of the younger generation of Japanese or westerners living for more than three years in Japan and living like a Japanese as to whether tradition and culture are still being followed.

 

[The7thSamurai]

I don't understand. You're from Turkey, aren't you ? Turkey is almost a Western country.

Some would argue that Turkey is one of the most western countries in the world, with its extremely secular government, freedom of speech, and democracy. The stuff that the OP seems to be worried about isn't really "westernisation", but more saturation of American pop culture.

 

[Murs]

Like Pachipro said its not only Japanese, Turkish etc but pretty much every nation trying to emulate Hollywood. Having thought about it more in depth, I think it is quite understandable even, because those who lack much intellect tend to be of this sort. I believe that, perhaps, those people are so insecure about their own worth and qualities that they can cover it up with generic pop junk just to 'fit in'. But this has gone off on an psycology tangent so i'll leave it here.

 

[MadamePapillon]

Like Pachipro said its not only Japanese, Turkish etc but pretty much every nation trying to emulate Hollywood. Having thought about it more in depth, I think it is quite understandable even, because those who lack much intellect tend to be of this sort. I believe that, perhaps, those people are so insecure about their own worth and qualities that they can cover it up with generic pop junk just to 'fit in'. But this has gone off on an psycology tangent so i'll leave it here.

And isn't it ironic that while the rest of the world is eating up that crap there are so many people here that choose instead to listen to lesser known indie bands, watch quality foreign movies and shun the name brands in favor of their own styles because the awareness that hollywood is feeding us crap is growing.

 

[Geostigma]

People start emulating other cultures when they're bored with their own. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence as they say.

 

[caster51]

I can not still understand what " westernized" means...

it means clothes, food and house before 100 years ago ....?
"westernized" is an another sinocentrism?

Btw
I think Philippines is the most "westernized" country in asia