To most outsiders, Westerners look the most confident and self-satisfied.

They think copying specific Western ways—their language, clothing, etc.—is how to get similar confidence. Worse, they copy what is not even Western values: promiscuity, drinking, etc. They only see what the worldview they have developed makes them.

The reality is different.

Western confidence comes from being better rooted in universal principles. This is only possible in a culture of free exchange and criticism of ideas, discussion, and introspection.

Next to them are East Asians, who have copied the Western ways in their institutions and have minimal welfare, the latter being far better than it is in the West.

Next are Arabs, but at a considerable distance from East Asians. Islam tries to anchor them in a brittle way by giving dos and don'ts and not enabling critical analysis. You can only get properly anchored to something by continually attempting to understand complexity, which comes only from critical thinking and discussion. Even if you know something for sure, you must constantly discuss what you believe in.

Far below the Arabs are sub-Saharan Africans and those from the Indian subcontinent. They have magical thinking, and their minds are floating abstractions. There is not even an attempt to anchor their minds. They need a constant supply of self-gratification to feel better. They must live vicariously through others, like feeling proud of the fireworks sent to the moon or the number of Indian CEOs in the USA. They are the least confident, the most servile, and the most stressed.

By: Jayant Bhandari