It’s Easy to Forget that our Cultural Perspective is Relative and therefore Hopelessly Biased

Thought for the day:

If you think about it, every spot on Earth lies to the east of somewhere, and to the west of somewhere else. There is no such thing as an “eastern country”, except in the minds of its inhabitants and neighbours. — John Gray

So when we refer to Southeast Asia, for example, if you are from Vietnam the “center” of your life is Vietnamese. If a Vietnamese person agrees that she is from Southeast Asia then she is agreeing to a Western viewpoint, not from the experiential fact of being at the center of who she is.

Makes sense?

A bigger map here