West Goes East

In Ukraine and now Romania, voters in Eastern Europe are choosing leaders on the basis of their desire to move their countries closer to the West. Is anybody in the West paying attention?

No, nobody is because the West itself wants to move as far away as possible from the West (or what the idea of “the West” represents for Ukrainian and Romanian voters.) I have a feeling that “the West” is geographically shifting to the East.

4 thoughts on “West Goes East

  1. “I have a feeling that “the West” is geographically shifting to the East”

    That’s one of the reasons I’m there/here (depending on your viewpoint). It wasn’t on the original list, but it’s been a contributing reason for staying.

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    1. And it’s a good reason. I’m a great fan of the Western values, of everything that the idea of “the West” represents in popular imagination. Sadly (for me), the West proved to be as fluid and shifty as everything else. 🙂

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  2. Heh we’re not exactly doing it so that the West pays attention, either. In fact, there’s a few Western countries I wish had paid less attention, or at least sprayed less tear gas on our voting queues. I have good feelings about the current Romanian elections, btw. Whereas 5 years ago the “Westernized” candidate and his campaign would’ve made a huge deal out of being “Western” (and even today, the losing bunch made a huge deal about being traditionally Romanian), this time, Johannis’ campaign mostly had the emotional “beats” of “efficiency, rule of law and politeness”. And he won by a landslide even with all the fraud that happened. It’s enormously refreshing to see this happen rather than the same old oscillating between our ideas of Empire and Homeland.

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    1. “And he won by a landslide even with all the fraud that happened. It’s enormously refreshing to see this happen rather than the same old oscillating between our ideas of Empire and Homeland.”

      – Good! Romania deserves much much better than what it has been getting for the past many decades.

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