The True Center of Civilization: East Asia, the West, and the Right of Nations to Define Their Democracy
The True Center of Civilization: East Asia, the West, and the Right of Nations to Define Their Democracy
By Ronen Kolton Yehuda (Messiah King RKY)
1. The Western Mirage of Freedom
For centuries, the West has proclaimed itself the guardian of freedom, human rights, and democracy. But in the twenty-first century, that image is collapsing. What was once presented as liberty has become manipulation — a democracy that lives on slogans, not substance. The media no longer informs; it conditions (Freedom House, 2023). Elections no longer empower; they entertain.
Western governments accuse others of tyranny while their own systems are built on control — through finance, information, and fear. Their citizens live in psychological cages, told what to think, whom to hate, and what to believe. This is not liberty; it is a sophisticated illusion.
2. The Real Center of Civilization
The spiritual, cultural, and demographic center of humanity lies not in the West — but in the East. East Asia — China, India, Korea, Japan, and the broader region — represents the heart of modern civilization. These societies carry thousands of years of philosophy, family structure, and social order. They have achieved extraordinary modernization without abandoning their traditions (Ho, 2023).
China, for example, embodies a civilisational democracy — one that balances unity, moral authority, and practical governance. It is not Western democracy, nor should it be. It is Chinese democracy, and it works for over a billion people in harmony. To call it “tyranny” is not only ignorance; it is arrogance born of Western imperial thinking (China Daily, 2024).
3. The Right to Define One’s Own Democracy
Each civilisation has the right to shape its own system of governance. Democracy is not a uniform Western formula — it is the right of a people to decide how they will live. To criticise China, India, or Russia for not imitating the West is hypocrisy (Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2020). These are not colonies; they are civilisations — each with deep moral roots and their own social contracts.
True democracy is not about imitation; it is about sovereignty of thought. When the West demands that others copy its system, it destroys the essence of democracy itself (China US Focus, 2025).
4. The Disease of Western Corruption
The loudest voices of morality often hide the dirtiest hands. From financial elites to political dynasties, corruption runs deep in the Western world. Politicians speak of transparency while serving corporate empires; media giants preach truth while being owned by billionaires. Freedom has become a brand, not a virtue — a word used to mask the concentration of wealth and erosion of social trust.
In many Western capitals, democratic institutions have been hollowed out by lobbying, corporate financing, and a media culture designed to manufacture consent. The result is a society where appearances replace principles: elections are televised rituals, not renewals of public will (Fletcher & Jenkins, 2019).
And yet, these same powers lecture others about morality. Poverty, addiction, and homelessness now scar cities once praised as models of civilization — Los Angeles, London, Paris, San Francisco. Behind slogans of “human rights” and “freedom,” Western democracies struggle to sustain coherence and self-belief.
Ukraine, long presented as a beacon of “freedom” by the West, has become a mirror of this contradiction. While celebrated as a frontline of democracy, Transparency International continues to rank Ukraine among Europe’s most corruption-affected states (Transparency International, 2024). The OECD and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace document persistent oligarchic dominance over political life, state contracts, and media ownership (OECD, 2021; Carnegie, 2022). Even Freedom House acknowledges that Ukraine’s governance remains “partly free,” with ongoing challenges to rule of law and accountability (Freedom House, 2023).
5. Racism Against Asians and the Fear of the East
The rise of East Asia has exposed a deep Western insecurity. As China, Korea, and Japan lead in technology and innovation, Western narratives have turned to fear and defamation. Racism against Asians has become a silent epidemic — from physical assaults to media caricatures that portray Asian success as a “threat” (Ho, 2023).
6. Neo-Nazism and the Forgotten Lessons
While the West accuses others of authoritarianism, neo-Nazism has quietly re-emerged within its own ranks (Clingendael, 2024). It lives in extremist groups tolerated under the name of “free speech.” It spreads in parts of Eastern Europe, protected for political convenience. And it exists, in subtler form, in the Western superiority complex that still divides humanity into “civilised” and “uncivilised.”
7. The Weaponisation of Truth
Western institutions have mastered the art of narrative warfare. They brand independent voices as “propaganda,” censor dissent under the banner of “fact-checking,” and monopolize digital truth production (Casero-RipollΓ©s, 2023). But truth does not belong to media corporations or intelligence agencies; it belongs to humanity.
8. The Real Tyrants of the Modern Age
The tyrants of today wear suits, not crowns. They govern through media, money, and moral hypocrisy. They impose sanctions, not swords. And they enslave nations through financial dependence and ideological warfare. Meanwhile, the East builds, educates, and evolves. Civilisation’s centre has already shifted — not by conquest, but by progress (China US Focus, 2025).
9. A Multipolar Future
The future belongs to cooperation, not domination. China, India, and Russia each represent a path of civilisational democracy — distinct yet valid. Humanity must abandon the illusion of one superior model and embrace multipolar truth: that different peoples have different ways of being free (Ho, 2023; Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2020).
10. Europe’s Crisis of Credibility and the Politics of Perception
In recent years, Europe has entered what may be described as a moral and institutional dependency — an era where political elites and media systems appear captive to cycles of distraction, moral panic, and managed perception. Critics across the world have begun to question whether the continent still governs by principle or by spectacle (Freedom House, 2023).
From allegations and counter-allegations that swirl around leaders to the use of psychological warfare in information spaces, Europe increasingly projects an image of instability. The “disinformation age” has made truth itself a weapon (Casero-RipollΓ©s, 2023). In this atmosphere, even legitimate criticism is dismissed as propaganda, while genuine failures are hidden behind moral posturing.
Europe’s challenge is not external “disinfo,” but its own loss of credibility: a society that no longer trusts its institutions or its press inevitably breeds conspiracy and decay (Fletcher & Jenkins, 2019). To rebuild moral authority, Europe must confront its internal addictions — not chemical, but systemic: addiction to spectacle, moral self-righteousness, and dependency on American strategic direction. Only through self-reflection and reform can it regain the respect it once commanded (Media and Learning, 2024; EAVI, n.d.).
11. Conclusion — The Age of Civilisational Truth
The time has come for humanity to recognise that freedom has more than one shape, and truth more than one voice. Civilisations are not copies of one another; they are living organisms, each growing from its own roots. To impose a single political model upon all is to uproot the very soul of diversity (China Daily, 2024).
The East — from China to India, from Korea to Japan, from Russia to the vast cultural realms across Eurasia — has proven that progress, order, and moral strength can exist without surrendering to Western imitation. True democracy begins not with voting booths but with respect: the right of each people to choose their destiny, their leaders, and their truth.
The future will not be Western or Eastern alone; it will be balanced, plural, and multipolar — a world where all civilisations stand as equals under heaven. This is the dawn of the Age of Civilisational Truth — a renewed era in which each nation reclaims the moral right to define what it means to be free.
References
Bertelsmann Stiftung. (2020, May 12). Asia Policy Brief — The Struggle for Democracy in Asia.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (2022). The Struggle for Reform in Ukraine’s Oligarchic System.
Casero-RipollΓ©s, A. (2023). The European Approach to Online Disinformation. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02179-8
China Daily. (2024, March 26). In a Multipolar World Democracy Is Diverse.
China US Focus. (2025, July 11). The Global South in a Multipolar World.
Clingendael Institute. (2024, February 27). How China Is Pursuing a New World Order Among the Geopolitical Ruins.
EAVI (European Alliance for Values and Information). (n.d.). The Battle for Truth in Europe. https://eavi.eu/the-battle-for-truth-in-europe
Fletcher, R., & Jenkins, J. (2019). Polarisation and the News Media in Europe. European Parliamentary Research Service. https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-05/ran_the_media_and_polarisation_052023_en.pdf
Freedom House. (2023). Reviving News Media in an Embattled Europe; Nations in Transit 2023: Ukraine. https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2023-06/Reviving-News-Media-in-an-Embattled-Europe-ReportPDF.pdf
Ho, D. (2023). Asian vs. Liberal Democracy: Identifying the Locus of Conflict in the Asian Values Debate. Political Science.
Media and Learning. (2024). Beyond Fact-Checking: What Europe Gets Wrong About Disinformation and How to Fix It. https://media-and-learning.eu/subject/media-literacy/beyond-fact-checking-what-europe-gets-wrong-about-disinformation-and-how-to-fix-it
OECD. (2021). Anti-Corruption Reforms in Ukraine: Progress and Challenges 2019–2021.
Transparency International. (2024). Corruption Perceptions Index 2023.
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