Paradox
10th July 2005, 20:15
I just finished reading this essay on colonialism by a Black man born in the West Indies, and educated in France. It's a very interesting essay, published in 1955, but still relevent today. I'd like to present a few quotes from the essay for discussion.
A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization.
A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a stricken civilization.
A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization.
First we must study how colonization works to decivilize the colonizer, to brutalize him in the true sense of the word, to degrade him, to awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race hatred, and moral relativism; and we must show that each time a head is cut off or an eye put out in Vietnam and in France they accept the fact, each time a little girl is raped and in France they accept the fact, each time a Madagascan is tortured and in France they accept the fact, civilization acquires another dead weight, a universal regression takes place, a gangrene sets in, a center of infection begins to spread; and that at the end of all these treaties that have been violated, all these lies that have been propagated, all these punitive expeditions that have been tolerated, all these prisoners who have been tied up and "interrogated," all these patriots who have been tortured, at the end of all the racial pride that has been encouraged, all the boastfulness that has been displayed, a poison has been instilled into the veins of Europe and, slowly but surely, the continent proceeds toward savagery.
Sounds quite relevent. Taking the Iraq war into examination, you see how they almost never mention how many Iraqi civilians have been killed as a result of this occupation. You see how they try to down play the significance of the tortures that have taken place, saying, "Stop being un-american. Those were terrorists." In this way they dehumanize the "enemy." They boast of how many "terrorists" they killed today, as if killing were something to be proud of. And the Iraqis who fight to free themselves of occupation are lumped together with the terrorists, all muslims become "extremists," it's "those Arab terrorists" who did this to "us"; baseless generalizations become accepted fact for many. And so slowly, the people become dehumanized, turn their cheecks at mounting civilian fatalities, and cheer to the cry of "40 'terrorists' killed today in Iraq."
Sure, we might have went into Iraq on a lie. Sure, we may have killed 100,000+ innocent people there, who we almost never tell you about, as if it's insignificant. Sure, we might have halliburton "rebuilding" Iraq. Sure, the "last throes" of the insurgency could last up to 12 years. But hey, on the plus side, now the Iraqi people have Subway restaurants like we do in amerika. <_<
One more quote to ponder:
To go further, I make no secret of my opinion that at the present time the barbarism of Western Europe has reached an incredibly high level, being only surpassed-far surpassed, it is true-by the barbarism of the united states.
A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization.
A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a stricken civilization.
A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization.
First we must study how colonization works to decivilize the colonizer, to brutalize him in the true sense of the word, to degrade him, to awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race hatred, and moral relativism; and we must show that each time a head is cut off or an eye put out in Vietnam and in France they accept the fact, each time a little girl is raped and in France they accept the fact, each time a Madagascan is tortured and in France they accept the fact, civilization acquires another dead weight, a universal regression takes place, a gangrene sets in, a center of infection begins to spread; and that at the end of all these treaties that have been violated, all these lies that have been propagated, all these punitive expeditions that have been tolerated, all these prisoners who have been tied up and "interrogated," all these patriots who have been tortured, at the end of all the racial pride that has been encouraged, all the boastfulness that has been displayed, a poison has been instilled into the veins of Europe and, slowly but surely, the continent proceeds toward savagery.
Sounds quite relevent. Taking the Iraq war into examination, you see how they almost never mention how many Iraqi civilians have been killed as a result of this occupation. You see how they try to down play the significance of the tortures that have taken place, saying, "Stop being un-american. Those were terrorists." In this way they dehumanize the "enemy." They boast of how many "terrorists" they killed today, as if killing were something to be proud of. And the Iraqis who fight to free themselves of occupation are lumped together with the terrorists, all muslims become "extremists," it's "those Arab terrorists" who did this to "us"; baseless generalizations become accepted fact for many. And so slowly, the people become dehumanized, turn their cheecks at mounting civilian fatalities, and cheer to the cry of "40 'terrorists' killed today in Iraq."
Sure, we might have went into Iraq on a lie. Sure, we may have killed 100,000+ innocent people there, who we almost never tell you about, as if it's insignificant. Sure, we might have halliburton "rebuilding" Iraq. Sure, the "last throes" of the insurgency could last up to 12 years. But hey, on the plus side, now the Iraqi people have Subway restaurants like we do in amerika. <_<
One more quote to ponder:
To go further, I make no secret of my opinion that at the present time the barbarism of Western Europe has reached an incredibly high level, being only surpassed-far surpassed, it is true-by the barbarism of the united states.