Why this word is great
OCCIDENTOSIS — [Noun] The social and economic disruption caused by the selective adoption of Western technology, resulting in widened inequality as traditional livelihoods collapse beneath mechanization. From Latin occident- ("west") + Greek -osis ("condition or process"); calque of Persian غربزدگی (ġarb-zadegi, "West-struckness"). Unlike "westernization" (which implies cultural osmosis) or "colonialism" (which requires occupation), occidentosis is the silent hemorrhage of a society grafting foreign tools onto its own flesh. It is the textile worker’s hands, idle as the loom clatters without him; the village square emptying as the young leave for factories that need fewer bodies; the new rich in imported cars gliding past the old poor who can no longer afford bread. A progress that feels like decay.
noun
- An increase in social inequality that occurs when the widespread adoption of Western technology results in job losses and factory owners gaining wealth.“When a factory rapidly producing cloth opened in the village, many people lost their jobs from the resulting occidentosis.”