>>3957107>no enemyThe Soviets were considered the big corrupting enemy then, I think.
The West kinda doesn't have any "enemy" per se now (so much as it likes to imagine one). Despite the impending and kinda sudden decline of American hegemony, Western cultural hegemony's still a thing.
One of the most useful ideas the Marxists made up is this concept of world systems: in the world system, some societies are at the center, others are at the periphery. They updated this to consider the semi-periphery.
Some societies make and own everything prestigious, then transmit to the periphery. Think of culture -- but in a rather surface way. Like, pop culture. Food, art, music.
What are some non-Western societies with massive global cultural influence to those outside of its own shared culture? Japan and Korea, for one, and basically nothing else. They've spread their stuff everywhere, and everyone wants some of it.
But look deeper, to culture and society in a deeper way: ideology, discourse, systems.
How much influence do Japan and Korea have in those terms? Korea, not much, Hallyu is quite a young thing, and Japan, relatively little as well ... but not nothing.
The Toyota manufacturing system was a huge influence, for instance. Japanese discourse is very much examined outside of Japan. Japanese aesthetic ideals (and authentic concepts, not just orientalizing visions of outsiders like with Africa and China) have had a profound influence on the world of art everywhere.
Those are the exceptions. Everything else is Western.
Western courts. Western laws. Western arms. Western tech. Western economy.
Liberal Democracy, Marxism, feminism: all Western in origin. The early CCP loathed (nominal!!) traditional Chinese social ideologies
The West really has no actual equal in power and influence. Were the entirety of Europe and N. America to disappear tomorrow, Western thought would still reign supreme for maybe a century. This is what they mean when they say "center" or "hegemony"
