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[mincot]

This is reposted from a comment I made on txanne's journal about the recent discussions of racism and privilege. The discussion -- largely substantive and thoughtful, and uncomfortable in the way that means growth is happening--has been making me think a good bit

Comments

[ashtur]

I'm not one who looks to see a great deal of "progress". We might progress on certain issues to be sure. I certainly see progress on racial issues from 50 years ago, much less 100 years ago. Yet, coming with a firm view of the essential brokenness of humanity, I don't see we'll ever create something that isn't just simply horribly warped. The details of the warping will shift and change, but the warping remains. So, we've improved on issues of race and gender (though, improved is not to say that we've reached the mark, or even gotten especially close). Yet, in other areas, we've regressed. For instance, in the whole realm of community.

Now, I don't see this as a cause and effect relationship. I'm not saying "we improved on race and gender, and that cost us community". It's never that simple, but just a point that our society is still twisted, and I fully expect it to remain such. We do what we can, but Utopia is as far away as it was when Plato wrote it.

Now, on the other hand, imperialism does carry a certain level of cultural arrogance to be sure. Yet, I think it is simplistic for us to write it off as a product of imperialism. That sort of cultural imperialism is frankly endemic to human nature.

We see it within the United States. Think of the 2000 and 2004 elections, and the railing and anger against those who voted GOP? The calls to separate our nation along the red/blue line (tongue in cheek as they were). Are those things truly any different in any essential way from calls to export democracy?

Further, is there ever a time where that kind of impulse is correct? I mean, is all the condemnation and anger towards Mugabe or the dictatorship in Myanmar truly empty? Is screaming about those things another example of cultural imperialism?

Finally, isn't that kind of thing just the essence of the exchange of ideas? One person has an idea... be it Joe the Plumber or John Locke. He tries to convince others that his idea is better, that he's more enlightened, that the other person's ideas are wrong and hurtful. It starts with the one (or the few) who have an idea, and a concept, but that idea is "evangelized" to those around them, and in time it grows to be a cultural consensus. Are those who describe and proclaim those ideas engaging in a form of imperialism?

These are not questions that have easy answers, though they're worth thinking about.

[mincot]

Yes, indeed they are. nojojo has an excellent post about this very issue--that racism and blindness isn't something owned solely by people of European descent, but is part of human interaction that we all need to be aware of and work against.

Is there ever a time when the impulse is correct? Isn't that the whole premise of the United Nations and the various Conventions? And there's no easy answer, is there--One can say that genital mutilation, executions, etc. are wrong sui generis, but what then? When is acting the only right response, versus leaving another culture to itself or exerting slow pressure? And yes--I agree with you about any calls (from either side) to further polarize the nation or to castigate those who voted differently are more than questionable.

I need to think about this issue some more!