Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Inferiority Complex & 'the Disease known as Civilization' (I)



I am talking of millions of men who have been skillfully injected with fear, inferiority complexes, trepidation, servility, despair, abasement. —Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le Colonialisme 

 The independence movements in colonies and protectorates came into being, not through a return to indigenous values on the part of those concerned, but through the absorption of occidental ideas and ideologies, liberal or revolutionary … the process of modernization – a euphemism for Westernization – far from being halted by the withdrawal, was in fact accelerated. The enthusiasm of the new rulers for everything ‘modern’ was not restrained, as had been the enthusiasm of their former masters, by any element of self-doubt. 
 —Gai Eaton, Islam and the Destiny of Man 

 The celebrated Algerian psychologist freedom fighter of blacks, Franz Fanon, saw only two parties in the battle between the colonialists and colonized: white and black. We, the brown, had pretty benign colonizers, who did not like to butcher millions or harass indiscriminately 24/7. We have no idea about the mass murdering of Central Asian Muslims and Africans by imperial powers of 19th/20th century. Our colonization was far less brutal and far more subtle, which left us unsettled, undiscovered, and even unwelcomed in both clubs, of whites and blacks. Our body was not tortured as much as we’re brainwashed and deluded through education and social-engineering by the “generous” colonizers.

5 comments:

  1. I like the van gogh painting you put up there. For the article,I have only one word : esoteric ! :p

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  2. That was my situation before self-examination i put in the article!

    And it means you've not read the article :P isn't it?

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    Replies
    1. Well.. I did give it a bird's eye view B)
      And concluded that its too complex for my already consumed mind.

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  3. Nah, ideas are very basic, its my failure as a writer to have made it so difficult. Honestly.

    Part 2: http://www.mybitforchange.org/2013/inferiority-complex-ii/

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  4. Hakuna Matata
    The painting is by Edvard Munch titled as "The Scream" and in a way resembles with the style of Van Gogh specially the desprate vibarate lines that show a volcanic exuberance of colors on canvas.

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