Личное мнение: The resurfacing of European colonialism

Decolonialism was forced on Europe without preparation. As a result, the continent never went through a process of mental decolonization. Now, is Europe increasingly behaving in neocolonialist ways?

By Gol Kalev

January 19, 2019 15:05

AN OLD map presents Europe in the shape of a queen holding scepter and orb, with Portugal as her crown, Spain as her face, France as her belowthe- neck area, lower Germany and Denmark as her left arm, Italy as her right arm (with Sicily as orb), and the rest of central and eastern Europe as the dres. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe was on top of the world. European nations controlled the global economy, wielded unparalleled influence on global affairs and possessed overseas assets – colonies in Asia and Africa. The colonialist mentality was core to what it meant to be European and was intertwined with the knowledge that 20 centuries of European global domination were natural and everlasting. That era’s intellectuals, such as Martin Zweig, wrote about the prevailing certainty that “such stability would last forever.”

But within a brief 30-year period from 1914 to 1948, that stability has shuttered: Wars erupted, killing millions of Europeans; centuries-old European empires collapsed; and power swiftly shifted from Europe to the United States.

As a result, Europe was forced to put a halt to its colonialist activities and eventually cede those overseas territories that it assumed would be held forever. Decolonization occurred both unwillingly and unexpectedly.

In the 70 years that followed, Europe took reactionary measures in response to these radical changes. Dr. Amichai Magen, head of the Diplomacy and Conflict program at the Lauder School of Government-IDC Herzliya, explains that Germany, Italy and other European powers needed to redefine themselves in light of the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II. “Europe sought to reinvent itself as a post-nationalist, and in some respects, post-modern entity, rejecting hard power. As part of this identity construction, Europe tried to redefine itself as a human-rights civilian superpower.”

While Europe has put in place mechanisms to neutralize what it perceived were the causes of its 20th-century wars, it took no measures to address the other Earth-shattering events that occurred at the same time: the abrupt loss of power and the psychological undoing of its deeply-rooted colonialist mentality, such as the notion of European superiority and Europe’s patronizing attitude toward the Third World.

Magen puts those 70 years in context: “From the end of World War II until about 2015, Europeans felt that they were largely insulated from the more tumultuous parts of the world they previously controlled as colonialist masters. They were under an American security umbrella and enjoyed growing prosperity at home. This perception of glorious insulation allowed Europe to invest in its newly found identity: Position itself as a soft power, distinguish itself from the ‘American cowboy,’ and fashion itself as a moral nanny to the world.”
But that insularity came to an end in recent years with waves of terrorism and immigration. Suddenly, the moral nanny began facing moral challenges.

Arguably, having failed to go through a process of mental decolonization back then, Europe is now reacting to those challenges with traces of its colonialist way of thinking.

This includes the underlying belief that Europe can bring in people from Third World countries, and that once in Europe, such immigrants will happily embrace European culture and values. After all, who does not want to be enlightened and Europeanized?
There is a healthy debate in Europe about whether to welcome or reject immigrants, but there is general agreement that Europe should reject the immigrants’ way of life.

THEREFORE, MASSIVE budgets have been allocated to “integration.” Dr. Sara Wallace Goodman of University of California, Irvine claims that a turning point occurred when governments stepped in to handle integration: “There was an assumption early on that residency will lead to integration – that over time this or the next generation will integrate. We now know residency is not the silver bullet to integration. Not only that, it became clear that there is a deliberate lack of integration. People were self-selecting to be part of insular communities. When this became clear, governments stepped in.”

Some acknowledge that such government intervention – teaching the newcomers the European ways – is somewhat reminiscent of 19th-century colonialist programs to enlighten the “primitives,” but that this time such policies are legitimate, since the “natives” are coming into Europe, not Europe going to the natives. The principle of indigeneity, the argument goes, means that European whites and their way of life have superior claims to Europe than that of incoming Asians, Africans and Muslims.

Полная версия: https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/The-resurfacing-of-European-colonialism-577692

Личное мнение

суббота, 19 января 2019 г.

The resurfacing of European colonialism

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суббота, 19 января 2019 г.

The resurfacing of European colonialism

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суббота, 19 января 2019 г.