In The Postcolonial Mind, the author speaks of Orientalism and the West's view of "Orientals" or people from the East. What I found most interesting was when Said's Culture and Imperialism was referenced and when he talked about imperialism as an idea. Imperialism, rather than a means to expand a nation's wealth, is an idea that needs to overcome a society to make people believe that it is their obligation to rule over and control an "inferior or less advanced peoples." This idea is a lot more dangerous than say the Romans because "the Romans were there just for the loot," modern imperialists are in it because they truly believe that they are superior to the people of the country they are conquering.
Since imperialism is solely an idea, shouldn't it be easy to destroy? I think that since the idea of imperialism is built on Orientalism and western society finding eastern society strange and savage, in order to break down imperialism is to break down the notion of Orientalism. This is harder than it sounds, because imperialism creates the illusion of an inferior people, that creates more stereotypes of that people, which creates more imperialism. Therefore the cycle continues until that people is no longer viewed as inferior. This is the hardest part because of western culture's arrogance being pumped to the people through the media making people believe this kinds of things.
I think the hardest part about destroying the stereotypes is that the idea of imperialism that you discuss was such a huge part of European life pre-World War One, and as a result, the stereotypes that followed became part of society. This would obviously a long process to get rid of. I also like your connection to the media.
ReplyDeleteI thought your connection to the media was very a very good one. Music, TV shows, movies, social media, everything portrays the dominant side of the binary differently than the submissive one. The media has an eerie capability to etch things into people's minds, and thus they create archetypes for a certain type of person.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right in assuming that this notion has deep roots in history and is, therefore, not easily shaken from society's outlook on the world.
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