Who Exactly Is The West?

In the current events we are constantly bombarded by the bad acts of Putin and Russia who is being opposed by the WEST?
Who exactly is the WEST?
The other day a pal of mine was cataloging all the countries that make up the WEST. I told him the WEST is not a list of countries.
Ahhh, my dear reader (I said in a particularly obnoxious, condescending voice fueled by cheap Keurig coffee), allow me to explain.

1. It is an idea, not a specific list of countries. It is not a place one can identify or find using an atlas or on a map.

Neither Google nor Duck Duck Go can find it.

2. That idea is driven by values and institutions (including countries and free associations like Nato and the European Union) that live by and promulgate those values.

3. Those values include:

The primacy of the individual over their government.

The acknowledgement that men receive their rights from God and that men then empower the government. The power of the government is what is given by mankind. Governments change when men withdraw that grant of power.

The Rule of Law rather than the rule of men. Putin believes in the rule of men, his men, with his being the first amongst all men. This characteristic of all tyrants is one of the most fundamental differences between Russia/Putin and the WEST.

The free election of democratic governments or representative republics founded on these same values captured in writing, the product of men.

The ownership of private property and the ability to enjoy and prosper therefrom.

The ability to work hard and to benefit from the value one creates for himself and his family.

The equality of all men in a melting pot that fairly and freely distributes opportunity.

Open markets in which the market allocates private capital, determines the means and methods of production, determines what will be produced, and sets prices.

Competition and the anointment of winners

The ability to tolerate and foster a broad set of contrary opinions and the ability to compromise amongst them

The freedom to worship one’s God in any fashion and mutual respect for each other’s religion

The primacy of life and the opposition to those who would take it — talking to you, Vlad.

The recognition that both good and evil are loose in the world and choosing the side of good.

FREEDOM

4. If one embraces even a portion of the values identified above, one quickly understands why Vladimir Putin is an enemy of the WEST. He is an enemy of those values.

If those values were to drift slowly from on high like a gentle mist on the cities, the steppes, the mountains, the valleys, the beaches, the lakes and rivers of Russia, Vladimir Putin would disappear like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz and her encounter with water. He lives in the darkness of hatred and evil on the dark side of these values.

That is who the WEST is and why we oppose a medieval, Dark Ages, despotism engaged in vicious Middle Ages siege tactics to capture Ukraine’s capital when Ukraine’s only sin was it wanted to be ruled with and freely associate with WESTERN VALUES.
Now, it is up to the WEST to figure this out. We can do it.

Saint Olga of Kyiv, protect your people and your city from evil. Amen.

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