The term 'Western' and 'Western World' will be obsolete by 2050

SS: The idea of a 'Western World' branches from the idea of this thought continuum from greco roman times to Christianity to the Enlightenment up to the Cold War where it was democracy vs communism. There was an ideological block of thought that glued a good piece of the world together and western was the label we gave it.

That label will be pointless by 2050. Most obviously the term Western indicated that there was something 'Eastern' which could categorize a good part of the rest of the world. That maybe made somewhat sense back in 1950 if you put indigenous American and African into an 'other' bucket. But in 2050, there's going to be a lot more distinct large thought groups which are neither 'western' or 'eastern' based.

Zooming in on the Western idea, all the glue is coming undone. Politically and economically the lines are rapidly being shifted. Political ideology is mishmashing all around, where terms like 'liberal' need a clarifier on what kind and which application. The internet is the idea & culture train, and already we see distinct internets with China having their own thing, the EU having theirs with their data governance rules - and this will only intensify in the future.

Globalism is dying. What's emerging? Regionalism, or more accurately, continentalism. I believe geography of proximity will once again rule supreme - continent blocks will be similarly aligned based on shared upbringing of people immigrating back and forth. That will reflect in brands, cuisine, fashion and style, urban form... As barriers to travel fall, people will naturally travel to what's closest - in that a trip to Guatemala used to be atypical for an American compared to a trip to France. Now we have things like Lake Atitlan being like a Taos / Shasta south.

Now people are gonna say look at Canada and the US right now! That beef cannot last and will all leave in 4 years - the US and Canada simply cannot diverge with shared defense and so much of what they do dependent on cheap transport between the two. Major disagreements cannot be tolerated between neighbors next door, while they can be across an ocean. The Turkey and Mexico really don't have to align. Turkey and Romania absolutely do.