Economic success generates cultural self-assertion and resistance to Western pressure

Evidence

East Asian economic development is altering the balance of power between Asia and the West, specifically the United States. Successful economic development generates self-confidence and assertiveness on the part of those who produce it and benefit from it. Wealth, like power, is assumed to be proof of virtue, a demonstration of moral and cultural superiority. As they have become more successful economically, East Asians have not hesitated to emphasize the distinctiveness of their culture and to trumpet the superiority of their values and way of life compared to those of the West and other societies. Asian societies are decreasingly responsive to U.S. demands and interests and increasingly able to resist pressure from the United States or other Western countries. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 281

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: ‘wealth as proof of virtue’ as a universal human psychology that drives civilizational self-assertion across cultures.
• XREF: connects to: Cultural shift and economic transition align but causal direction stays unclear — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1047