Past few centuries colonial racists had assumed
the burden of civilizing the world. Whether colonizing was natural in the power
matrix that existed a century back is debatable. Without rule of law and
civilized dealing any group or collective, even most individuals, located
anywhere in the world with slight advantage than others will likely dominate
and maximize their gain. So this blogger is not ready to brand only whites as
racist –a virulent form of discrimination, nor the reason for colonialism. Any
primitive mind will look for opportunity and weave reason to dominate, exploit
and amass resources. West was able to provide civilized space for best mind to
create values that sustain and advance civilization. Ofcourse there were many
before like the Egyptians, Greeks and many more but they didn’t have the
advantage of printing press, fast dissemination and consolidation of knowledge.
Chance and choice created a favourable mix for advancement. Sophisticated
philosophy, that sought to understand complexity of reality, created framework
of inquiry hinged on critical thinking and reasoning hence science and
technology –it also built on inputs from collective knowledge across the world.
There is no debate that the West created framework for best minds to thrive and
consolidate. What can be ofcourse negated is role of race. This could have
happened in any part of the world, if all the critical factors had aligned. Not
that it was fated but what is true is that civilizational advancement was
primed in West with white people at the core of advancement. There is nothing racist
about it. Nor is there any racism to understand that few centuries back this
kind of advancement would have made people feel superior from the power they
wielded and therefore create racial ideologies and exaggeration on this narrow
premise, and in the context of the world they lived in they unleashed brutal
exploitations to gain control. Therefore it is logical for colonial racism to
have existed and indeed thrived till a century back. World was a brutal place. This
doesn’t ofcourse mean that there weren’t humanist people among whites nor that
among non-whites there weren’t individuals, or even collective, that had
potential to be much advanced as we are today.
It is therefore necessary to remove this
baggage of colonial racism that is propped up by devious people (sometimes well
meaning) into contemporary debate as if the world has not changed in last one
century. I for one will strongly defend the contemporary world from infective
incursions of history. Complexities of the world we inhabit and the challenges
of future has no space for regressive values and illogical (indeed laughable)
fractures of past. What needs focus is the present –the world we live in, which
essentially means to remove the possibilities of repeat of the past. Past
repeats if people are trapped and controlled in semantics and sensibilities of
past and are disconnected from complexities of present and immense possibilities
of future. Past repeats if people are not connected to the reality of their existence,
and are systematically degraded into herd, through myths and fantasy as their
senses and reasoning faculties are compromised. Herd by its very nature lack
empathy and are unconcerned about broader ramification than what they are
controlled to react. The urgent need for the world therefore is to remove
possibilities of the past mindsets from the present, the regressive ways and
values that affirm structures that sustain past brutalities -hence continuation
of dehumanizing sensibilities and tragedy of history repeating. Any structure
that segregates (specifically values that is sustained from past) and
degrades is a live threat. Indeed, almost all conflict at the international to
regional (to even societal and individual) can be traced to primitive values of
past that are sustained by anachronistic structures controlled by devious
people. Feudal structures severely undermine individual liberty and are
persistent threat to democratic institutions and to the idea of democracy
itself. When these are supported by powerful systems and influential people it
becomes extension of primitiveness of past and immune to the progress of
present and so eat into possibilities of common people’s life. Colonial
mindset, entitled values –quite naturally extending to racism and supremacist
ideas, no longer remains forgotten regrettable past but immediate threatening presence.
To create a semblance of civilized in this
severely compromised dehumanizing value system the powerful feudal elite have
worked out a compromise. This is the morphing of white people’s burden that we
now face. It wouldn’t be much problematic if it were limited to weekend hedonistic
get together. The influence of colonial structures and reach of colonial language
around the world, particularly erstwhile colonies, makes it a serious threat to
humanity. They have the power to control ideas and nurture narration across the
world, particularly in poor neglected societies (many with mediocre corrupt well
fed feudal elite –a trademark of post-colonial societies) through recognition and
benefits (while suppressing inconvenient narrations). Semantics of control
therefore infect discourse and bring back dead cold hand of history into
reckoning, and thus the absurdity we face.
Racist white Christians, neoliberal right, are
blatant revivalist (this is true for all religions) hence easily isolated and
rightly condemned. What is particularly sinister is humanist posturing by those white
people who are nurtured under feudal and value system of exceptionalism. It is here, in
this hypocrisy, white people’s compromise is streamed as exaggerated
egalitarian concerns, lacking basic egalitarian foundation or humanity
affirming values. They are desperate so as to not be exposed hence lose their control,
they use semantics of concern and viciously control meanings and narrations. To
associate with bleak reality of common people they manipulate egalitarian
semantics of socialism and thus pose as neoliberal left to represent. They
create narrations of multiculturalism and relativism (mystifying the crass, normalizing
the vulgar) to nurture worst of people and regressive values from across the
world at the expense of marginalized, and ofcourse diluting quaint ideas of
multiculturism and inclusive values (which then fuels competing binary of myth by
neoliberal right). Regressive barbarian cultures and practices, especially the
one couched in the garb of faith, has severely degraded societies across the
world. Humanist ethical concerns in a religion cannot be classified and pushed
out as atheism to maintain sanctity of barbaric values and primitive practices
under the garb of faith. It needs to be made clear in no uncertain terms that
you cannot be part of a religion without strongly condemning the regressive
mentions in holy books, scriptures, traditions so on and persistently question the
degrading practices and traditions in the religion on every conceivable
occasion. If you do not then you also have no right to practice that religion
in open liberal society nor can be part of any human right activism. This hypocrisy
cannot be kept hidden under faith or personal. This white people’s compromise
has severely damaged human right concerns across the world. Common people can
no longer take white people’s burden. Please don’t be our saviour. We have
enough burdens as it is, indeed many insurmountable, and we cannot compromise our
sense of reality, our only claim for survival, to fit in your manipulation. Neoliberal
right revivalist jingoism of majoritarian supremacism is a known threat and can
be resisted through rule of law and humanism. The neoliberal left’s opportunist minoritarian
spurious identity driven posturing is much insidious as it not only make concocted grievances of neoliberal
right credible but also nurture the worst as minority while usurping from the needy
and marginalized. This elitist competing binary is the reason for increasingly
lack of empathy and criminal inactions for truly suffering people across the
world. The use of semantics of care and concern to work out opportunist narration
is what makes it sinister. By nurturing and mainstreaming regressive values and
practices they have severely undermined incremental gains of humanist egalitarian
traditions over obscurantist forces by divergent communities across the world
–which is now exploited by rightist. And with market driven media and chaos of social
media nuanced traditions are now pushed out as outrageous and blasphemous. The loss
is immeasurable.
Strengthen democratic institutions, nurture
human liberty and freedom, value critical thinking as indelible part of
collective understanding. Always question, undermine, and deconstruct feudal
institutions and values (that continue to shape global economic and local social
institutions), ascriptive exceptional values, supremacist ideas and systems
that dehumanize into herd. Use words carefully, understand its import and
control. Words must reflect the complex realities of present with awareness of past
and possibilities of future. Most importantly, please don’t be complacent. Your
complacent classifications, simplistic understandings and narrations carry a
heavy price for people across the world just, like the carbon emission, the
effect are felt in far off places.
