Empire, Capitalism and Modernity
A Shift in the Civilizational Paradigm
"The Irano-Semitic prophets analyzed neither the inner self nor the outer world. If they analyzed anything, it was history itself..." (Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, V.1, 1977, p.117)
Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566) -- advocate for the rights of
Indigenous Americans and opponent of Spanish colonialism.
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (1494-1573) -- drew on Aristotle to describe
Amerindians as 'natural slaves'. His arguments in support of colonialism
are still used today, but to justify US Imperialism
"The history of the modern world-system has been in large part a history of the expansion of European states and peoples into the rest of the world. This has been an essential part of the construction of a capitalist world economy. The expansion has involved, in most parts of the world, military conquest, economic exploitation, and massive injustices" (Wallerstein, 2006, p.1)
The Rise of Europe: Columbus, Gold and Capitalism
So how did modern Europe come to "triumph" over the world? Most Eurocentric historians perpetuate a mixture of ideologically-driven myth, polemic and absurd argument to explain Europe's "miracle", often with little if any regard for the burgeoning scholarly evidence to the contrary. A more convincing explanation begins with a short rhyme some readers may remember from school:
In fourteen hundred and ninety two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue"...the rise and triumph of Europe did not result from any prior actual or potential superiority over other civilizations, but resulted, rather, from the immense wealth that flowed into Europe from the Western Hemisphere and later from the colonized regions." (Blaut, 2000, p.9)
Eurocentricism, Globalization and The Shift
Role of intellectual: "The first need is the historicization of our intellectual analysis ... to place the reality we are immediately studying within the larger context: the historical structure within which it fits and operates" (Wallerstein, 2006, p.82)
"...hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples were slaughtered, decimated, deported, enslaved, starved, exterminated, impoverished, and forcibly assimilated into an emerging world system dominated by Western Europe. This was how the global values and politico-economic structures of our civilization came into being. Globalization... the bloody legacy of a 500-year killing machine."
And what futures?
"What we need now is a civilizational paradigm shift. Not just a new economics, or new politics, or new social vision. We need a whole new vision of life itself to replace the dead, broken materialistic vision associated with the concurrent global imperial system. The good news is that the civilizational paradigm shift is not only happening now as I write – its seeds have already been planted."
Ahmed, N. The Cutting Edge, Hidden Holocaust--civilizational crisis, Part 1 & Part 3. See also Part 2 .
"For
the last 200 years, [the world has] been completely familiar to us
[=Europe/USA], because it's a western-made world. Now we're moving
into an era where the world will become increasingly unfamiliar and
disorientating to us. We will be obliged to try and understand the
logic and character of a culture that is entirely unfamiliar, and no
effort has been made in this direction so far."
Martin Jacques
References
Barber, B. (2007) Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children,
Infantilize Adults and Swallow Citizens Whole (W W Norton & Co
Ltd)
Blaut, J.M. (2000) Eight Eurocentric Historians (London: The Guilford
Press)
Crang, M. (1998) Cultural Geography (London: Routledge)
Hahnel, R. (2002) The ABCs of Political Economy: A Modern
Approach (London: Pluto Press)
Jacques, M. (2009) When China Rules the World (Allen
Lane/Penguin)
Kingsnorth, P. (2003) One No, Many Yeses (London: Free Press)
Klein, N. (2000) No Logo (London: Flamingo)
Mason, P. (2007) Live Working, Die Fighting: How the Working
Class Went Global (London: Harvill Secker)
Norberg-Hodge, H. (2000) Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh,
Revised Edition (London: Rider)
Pilger, J. (2006) Freedom Next Time (London: Transworld)
Seabrook, J. (2007) The No-Nonsense Guide to World Poverty
(London: NI/Verso)
Wallerstein, I. (2006) European Universalism: The Rhetoric of
Power (London: The New Press)