Is modernization necessarily Westernization?

It is no secret that the West were the ones who started on the path of industrialization and modernization first. As we modernize, our ways of life change, our economies change as we come to become capable of producing more and communicate faster and wider.

In the earlier days, being modern is tied with being Western. It was Europeans who had those steam machines. It was Europe and the U.S. that had trains and cars and steamships. It was Europe and the U.S. that had telegraph and then telephones. As other countries followed the path of modernization, they also started to adopt Western appearances to show that they are on the path of modernization.

We took on a different way of dressing. We adopted new ways of cooking and ate a wider variety of foods. We even adopted a different way of telling time.

But is the adoption of such outer appearances a sign of a change in thinking? Are we becoming more Western in looks because we are becoming more Western in mindset?

Does modernization mean we become Westernized in thinking too?

I would venture to say, no.

A society's culture and thinking is shaped over a very long period of time. And yes, it changes with the time as it interacts with other societies, through major events, but history and experience add to it, not replace it. The adoption of a Western appearance may be more for convenience. Societies have always took in new ideas that work for them and gotten rid of those that are no longer applicable. A new way of eating, dressing, and maybe even governing. Adopting an idea or ten does not necessarily mean we are adopting an entire culture. Japan modernized, but it continues to retain its old way of naming the years using era names. China has taken the modern concepts of communism and socialism and used these as convenient labels for its modern way of government. But has Chinese worldview fundamentally change? Maybe not. Has the Japanese worldview fundamentally changed? I don't think so; we can still very much recognize a Japanese way of doing things.

If we do not become more homogeneous (aka Western) as we become more modern, then the key to humanity's continued progress is to learn how to handle differences and diversity. While the West may have been the first to modernize, the Western way is not the only path to modernization. Only when we accept that there are many paths to modernization, and that modernization is different from Westernization, will we be able to better understand the differences in our systems, the diversity it offers, and how we can work together to make things even better.