Who would you vote if the 2016 election is Trump vs. Sanders

[alfred russel]

I think the most widely understood grouping is that of Cold War era NATO countries plus a couple of more countries that were not part of NATO for idiosyncratic reasons.

That is close to the definition of the first world, not the "west".

The western world has a somewhat vague definition, but a long history. At the most basic, europe is the west, and east asia the east. In different contexts the concept can vary--greeks and romans (the west) vs. persians (the east) for example, while mesopotamia is generally covered in western civilizations.

I find it very hard to see a reasonable cultural definition that doesn't include much of latin america as part of the west. If you want to exclude the highlands of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, or some of the rainforest regions, okay. But places like Buenos Aires are probably culturally closer to parts of europe like Naples than cities such as Houston.

[MadImmortalMan]

Japan is more "western" than most of South America. Economically.

[Valmy]

"The West" is not a construction primarily based on geography. It includes Australia and not the Caribbean.

France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom...not "The West"...ok whatever.

We're all culturally tied to each other if you look back far enough.

Except you have to look back exactly zero seconds in this case.

[Monoriu]

When I say "the west", western europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand are definitely in.  Central America and the Caribbean countries are definitely out.  Eastern Europe, Russia and Latin America are borderline cases that may or may not be included, depending whether their inclusion will help my argument or not 

Japan and S. Korea, despite being economically and to some extent socially similar to the west, are not included. 

[Valmy]

When I say "the west", western europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand are definitely in.  Central America and the Caribbean countries are definitely out.  Eastern Europe, Russia and Latin America are borderline cases that may or may not be included, depending whether their inclusion will help my argument or not 

I just do not get it. Was Jamaica part of the west when it was populated entirely by British planters and their slaves and then cease to be a some random point between then and now? Or do British people cease to be western when they step on certain bits of dirt?

[Martinus]

This is how Huntington divided civilizations. His work may have been flawed, but he was probably more knowledgeable on the subject than anyone here:

[Valmy]

Papau New Guinea is part of my civilization but Mexico is this radically different weird place eh?

Ah well.

[Martinus]

I tend to agree with this split - in Europe, the decisive factor is the dominant religion - Orthodox countries have quite different ideas (that are homogenous enough) about a lot of things from the countries with dominant Catholicism and Protestantism. Latin America is sufficiently distinct to have formed a separate civilization (the intermingling of the cultures of the colonists and the indigenous people is much stronger there than in North America or Australia, so it warrants it being treated as a separate civilization).

[Valmy]

Well the extent that is true varies wildly from region to region in Latin America. It is not true at all of the Carribean though. No natives survived the first couple decades of contact with the Spanish and their diseases and yet they are considered part of this distinct civilization...even though they speak Dutch and English and French as well as Spanish.

Also parts of Surinam, Guyana, and French Guiana are part of Africa 

[Valmy]

Also the Turkic peoples of central Asia are all split along religious lines. That seems weird but then what do I really know about them?

[The Brain]

This is how Huntington divided civilizations. His work may have been flawed, but he was probably more knowledgeable on the subject than anyone here:

In Asia: "Sinic", "Buddhist", "Japanese", ...
In non-Islamic Africa: "African"

[Jaron]

there should be lots of Latin American dots all over US now

[The Brain]

there should be lots of Latin American dots all over US now

TMI

[MadImmortalMan]

I'm kinda curious about the Hindus in Guyana.

[Jaron]

there should be lots of Latin American dots all over US now

TMI