The Western Problem (I): Why so different?

A few days ago, I was pondering about the global crisis and came to a surprising, at least for me, conclusion.

Even the powers that oppose the Western hegemony, accept very Western ideas about economy, society and culture.

«Western», more as a concept than geography, of course.

But this is not new. Even within the Cold War, the two competing blocks where built around two competing Western conceptions of Economy: «Capitalism» and «Socialism».

How is that possible? How a small part of the world managed to root it’s very way of thinking everywhere?

If we look at the past; say, two thousand years, we find that the most important civilized zones where in Asia. India and China had complex societies that include theologies and advanced schools of thought. In particular, Chinese genius proved to be unparalleled.

By contrast, the Roman Empire was just a brutish State under the rule of a certain chieftain Caesar Augustus.
And then?

That said brutish state thrived for some centuries, suffered a division and its Western half collapsed completely under the pressure from some uncivilized barbarians. That should have been the end. But there was something different, something that have a long lasting effect over the very history. The Roman way of thinking, coupled with the state religion and the feeling of being under siege from every direction, gave birth to a society that, even culturally and politically fractured, retained conscience of its unity.

Western Europe was born. The little pieces, always warring against among them, had every motive to fight for military and economical supremacy. It couldn’t be done through natural wealth, that Europe lacked, but through more efficient ways of exploiting and controlling the surroundings. That’s it, through technology and science, both requiring a certain way of thinking.

That set the difference. Not initial wealth or condition. But the attitude toward the problem. It could have been a disaster, in fact.

To understand this, the Black Death left Europe practically at the mercy of any invasion. But it also brought ideas about the way things are that greatly influenced Renaissance itself.