@Sultans_Seal @r_mccormack @martinb It is, but it would be fair to say that the ensuing carve up of Africa and wholesale plunder and geo-political manipulation of non-European resources for lucre not to mention the exponential capitalisation on colonial rule and slavery which lead to an astonishing proliferation of #Supremacism and #Racism to protect these ill-gotten gains, then became *the system of belief* under which every European was raised.. 😒😞
@LittleGreyRab @martinb @Sultans_Seal only a certain class and only from the 19th century and only from certain regions of Europe.
@r_mccormack @martinb @Sultans_Seal I have to say our experience as a family suggests that these attitudes are a LOT more widespread than you suggest - across both class and countries - unfortunately 😒😞
@LittleGreyRab @r_mccormack @Sultans_Seal Yes it is. Iy is important to recognize the impact of colonialism and the racism that justified it. But my question is, is this a social-historical phenomenon or is it an essential characteristic of European "western" cultures dating back to it's very origins.🤔
Personally, i'm weary of "essentialist" explanations. The appear to me as very conservative and can lead to fatalism and circular logic.
@martinb @r_mccormack @Sultans_Seal
I agree. Also with the idea that #otherism and #racism existed the world over. But it seems to me that the industrial scale of #colonialism by European countries of African, Asian, and S. American peoples, including *ownership* of people as livestock for financial gain, was a very particular low point which engendered a revolting, protectionist response when challenged, just as news media was also expanding..
@LittleGreyRab @r_mccormack @Sultans_Seal Thank you for this conversation, it allows me to put in writing some thoughts that have been bugging me. I agree that while the West has no historical monopoly on #Ethnocentrism, #Imperialism and unjust systems of social #domination, the global scale and wide reaching influence of #Colonialism is unprecedented.
@LittleGreyRab @r_mccormack @Sultans_Seal ... This should not however make us forget that all of this is a set of complex and historically evolving phenomena that are manifested in different forms at different times and places. It is something, like all things, that appears, that evolves and that will eventually disappear or change into something else. It is not some timeless and universal attribute.