Its not about west vs east

Reading articles recently about the war I often see people often using west, western values as a way to group together the countries and principles they believe are on the "right side" of the conflict.

Every time I read this I cringe. I really don't like it. I come from Greece. Greece is not a Western country. Its actually right on the border where historians have east vs west. And for that matter my mother is from an island on the 37th degree Latitude shared with Tynisia. And right there, in that cross-section of East and West, North and South,  in Greece 2.5K years ago the first iteration of democratic values have actually happened. And for me thats the difference. I see countries where democratic principles that involve equality and freedom to elect the governing body based on plurality of votes, where governing bodies have term limits, where people have reasonable rights of self expression and then I see countries where that is not the case. In both groups of countries you can find crime and corruption. In both groups you can find prejudice and lack of justice and fairness. In both groups you can find religion and non religion. 

But I feel in countries that have democracy there is more hope for most of their citizens. And being an optimist I cannot see myself ever living in a non-democratic country. And I believe most people in the world want to live in a place that has democratic principles - where they can live with the hope and optimism I was lucky to live with all my life.

So I hope that people will stop making conflicts like Russia/Ukraine a case of conflicts between East and West but more a case between democracy vs non-democracy. Looking at the  democratic index of economist democracy exists in both east and west. It exists in north and south. West-labeling gives to autocrats the opportunity to characterize these conflicts as conflicts between privileged whites and the rest of the world. And if that were the separation I would rather jump camps. I am not a Westerner nor an Easterner. I am not a Northerner nor a Southerner.  I am a democrat.