The "west" refers to a specific form of philosophical thinking that originated with the Greeks. It focused on logic and rational argument. It influenced essentially everyone WEST of the Greeks (slight oversimplification, but bare with me). Additionally, it is centered around the individual. It also works well with the major religion WEST of the Greeks: Christianity (ONE savior, the individual's relationship with ONE God, etc). It naturally gave rise to both humanism and the enlightenment, not to mention the notion of human rights and liberties that man is entitled to solely by existing, by nature of his humanity. The majority of the countries in the "west" share these views, we are brought up within them (specifically that of Aristotelian logic), and have trouble thinking outside of it.

Asian countries, "the east," however, developed along a much different psychological and philsophical path. Again, a simplification, but a majority of thinking in THIS region is influenced by things like Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. None of these ways of thinking emphasize the individual, but rather focus on the individual's place within the everything else. It is focused on relations and connections generally rather than the focused on each individual part that is connected to another individual part.

This is a categorically different way of thinking. Period. There is a reason, therefore, for this distinction. When invoked by a lazy person (or a young person), it can be pejorative