Eastern vs. Western Dichotomy

The Eastern vs. Western Dichotomy is referential to a divide between the states of the Eastern and of the Western halves of the map. These differences are most apparent in the exchanges between political leaders, particularly Montrose's FlyingGMM in the West and Goomnest's Goomyman77 in the East. The concept is a fuzzy one, and hard to define, as it uses geography to define a political situation.

The western half of the map was settled first. Before many of the people who eventually became Easterners joined the server, the Western nations were already solidly established and had long histories while the East was wholly untamed, with the exception of Bagelonia. Some historians believe this to be the root of the dichotomy: an "us vs. them" underdog dynamic forming as the fledgling early East saw themselves as struggling to reach a level playing field against a rich and well-established rival.

Others believe the East vs. West divide arose out of a sense of "bullying" by the well-established West. Interventionism and imperialism were not unheard of in Western actions. The ideology of eastern nations needing to band together to prevent such perceived "pushing around" was espoused by Goomlandia, a major eastern nation.

A third theory is that of government styles. The West has historically favored complex democratic systems, while many Eastern nations operate with relatively simple autocratic governments, if there is any governmental structure at all. Eastern leaders such as Goomy decry the West's system as misguided and inefficient, shown in goomyman77's quote of "you have this complex, unnecessary system of democracy-not-democracy". On the other hand, Western leaders such as FlyingGMM decry the authoritarian practices of the East as tyrannical. This sharp contrast and resentment toward each others' states are a third metric by which the wedge could have been originally been driven in between the Eastern and Western states.

The historian FlyingGMM, however, would make the analysis that the Eastern-Western divide is largely a misnomer, started by Sylvia's encompassment of nearly all "Western" land and nations, and Goomnest's espousment of being the face of everything "Eastern", and the ensuing rivalry between the two states. Looking at several Eastern nations, such as Bagelonia, Banastair, and ToeGANG, all of which Sylvia has had excellent relations with, it is obvious that there is no strict political divide between the east and west. Rather, the verbal (and limited physical) conflict between the east and west was Montrose and Goomlandia's rivalry becoming inherited by Sylvia and Goomnest respectively, and becoming generalized to simply "West vs. East".