a way of thinking

Hello.

Today's question is from an entrance exam of a university in Japan.

The question is:

What does "a way of thinking" in the following passage refer to?

Explain it briefly.

Do you think "a way of thinking" includes a sense of inferiority?

I think not, because it seems to me that this way of thinking causes a sense of inferiority.

What do you think?

Thank you.

Writers from Britain and, to a certain extent, writers from Germany and France ? and I myself have had this experience ? go to an international writers’ conference and somehow feel inferior, compared to writers who come from places like Africa, or Eastern Europe, or Latin America, in the sense that in many of the great intellectual battles between liberty and authoritarian regimes, or between communism and capitalism, or between the Third World and the Industrialized World, the front line somehow seems to be in these countries, and there seems to be a more clearly defined role for writers like Kundera or some of the African writers. Writers from all the Eastern European countries always seem to have some sort of clear political role to play. This may well be a misunderstanding, but it’s a way of thinking that comes over a lot of us who come from the more safe countries, if you like, the safe, prosperous countries like Britain, or West Germany, or France, although the situation has suddenly changed for the West Germans.