The West

I'll probably refer to "The West" a lot on here, so it'd be best for me to try and express what that means here before I get rolling on other ideas.  To me "the West", while a nebulous idea, is represented by two major interrelated ideas which form its foundation.

For the first idea I'll point back to Socrates because he probably best reflects the beginnings of this idea in the West.  It is that asking questions, especially of established tradition, is a good thing.  This idea undermines the power of "Tradition" and has individuals deciding what is and isn't true.  Individuals may seek to understand some kind of absolute truth outside of themselves, but ultimately they are the final authority that decides whether to believe and act on that truth.

For the second idea I'll point to America because it has so come to embody this idea to the world, that is, the "pursuit of happiness".  The West has come to believe that the individuals right to pursue happiness is one that should not be infringed upon unless it affects the same right in another person.

The major result of these two ideas, especially the second, is that our culture is obsessed with avoiding or alleviating personal suffering.  The only time when someone might embrace some level of suffering is if it will lead to an even greater happiness (for example exercise or education) and even then most people who try to decrease the suffering as much as possible while obtaining the same results.

I suspect both of these ideas will come up frequently here, but I'll try to give one example that I've thought about recently to better explain what this looks like in our culture.  There are two streams of thought in our modern society that probably shouldn't get along, but for the most part people from both seem to get along quite well.

The first is the 'feminist' push (I understand feminism can be expressed in a lot of different ways and I'm not going to claim to have some great understanding of it, so I'm just going to explain what I mean by it and then just move on) to completely equalize the two genders.  Many people today assert that there are basically no differences between men and women and they should be given exactly equal treatment in pretty much all areas (with the exception of obvious biological differences, like reproduction).

The second stream is that of the LGBTQ community which realistically should be diametrically opposed to the first stream.  Why do I say that?  Because pretty much all of these 'identities' hinge on the fact that men and women actually are different (bisexual would be the main exception I can think of).  If men and women are exactly the same then you shouldn't really like one over the other, or identify as a different gender than you were born as.  If a man feels like a woman trapped in a man's body, that suggests that there are very real differences between men and women.

I would suggest these two streams coexist easily together because they don't tend to infringe on each others' pursuits of happiness.  Feminism's main thrust seems to be at society and the workplace, while the LGBTQ community is mostly about sexual and physical identity.  If men and women are treated exactly the same by society it won't cause the LGBTQ society any suffering (it will even allow easier transitions between genders one would assume), and feminists don't really care about what people want to do privately with their bodies (other than to say that women especially should have complete control over their own bodies, which definitely doesn't conflict with LGBTQ priorities).

If this example made things more confusing for anyone please feel free to ask questions, and know that I plan to show how Orthodoxy goes an entirely different direction than 'the West' in a post pretty soon, and that will probably further clarify why individualism and the pursuit of happiness are how I identify 'the West'.

The Beginning

I keep wanting to start this blog, but I overthink it and don't get around to it, so I'm finally just forcing myself to start it so I can attempt to get around my perfectionism.  I can't express super well what this blog will be other than me trying to put my thoughts down in a form that other people can read.  I expect the only people who will be interested in this blog will be people interested in me (either people who already know me well, especially those interested in my transition to Orthodoxy, or people looking to get to know me like new friends or coworkers).

The primary thrust of this blog will likely be my thoughts on Orthodoxy and how it interacts with "the West", but my interest in Southeast Asian pop-culture may also sometimes trickle onto here (we'll see as time goes on).

A lot of my thoughts these days take the more 'negative' form, in my questioning of the Western worldview, rather than expressing the positive side of Orthodoxy.  My putting those thoughts here is somewhat by design because you really shouldn't learn about Orthodoxy from some random blog, but if I can intrigue you enough to want to look into it more that is great.  Go find a local Orthodox church where people live the faith and then combine that with reading the Church Fathers and you'll be set.

That's all I can think of for now, so onto the next post where I'll put down some actual thoughts.