NBC: Europe's contempt for other cultures can't be sustained
- From: "Calvin Jones & the 13th Apostle" <Another_Thin_Line@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 15:36:17 -0500
interesting article ... this is obviously a viewpoint 180 degrees from
Officer Joe and a few other people on this board .. this author does have
some points .. his belief of the golden rule
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1711874,00.html
Europe's contempt for other cultures can't be sustained
A continent that inflicted colonial brutality all over the globe for 200
years has little claim to the superiority of its values
Martin Jacques
Friday February 17, 2006
The Guardian
Is the argument over the Danish cartoons really reducible to a matter of
free speech? Even if we believe that free speech is a fundamental value,
that does not give us carte blanche to say what we like in any context,
regardless of consequence or effect. Respect for others, especially in an
increasingly interdependent world, is a value of at least equal importance.
Europe has never had to worry too much about context or effect because for
around 200 years it dominated and colonised most of the world. Such was
Europe's omnipotence that it never needed to take into account the
sensibilities, beliefs and attitudes of those that it colonised, however
sacred and sensitive they might have been. On the contrary, European
countries imposed their rulers, religion, beliefs, language, racial
hierarchy and customs on those to whom they were entirely alien. There is a
profound hypocrisy - and deep historical ignorance - when Europeans complain
about the problems posed by the ethnic and religious minorities in their
midst, for that is exactly what European colonial rule meant for peoples
around the world. With one crucial difference, of course: the white
minorities ruled the roost, whereas Europe's new ethnic minorities are
marginalised, excluded and castigated, as recent events have shown.
But it is no longer possible for Europe to ignore the sensibilities of
peoples with very different values, cultures and religions. First, western
Europe now has sizeable minorities whose origins are very different from the
host population and who are connected with their former homelands in diverse
ways. If European societies want to live in some kind of domestic peace and
harmony - rather than in a state of Balkanisation and repression - then they
must find ways of integrating these minorities on rather more equal terms
than, for the most part, they have so far achieved. That must mean, among
other things, respect for their values. Second, it is patently clear that,
globally speaking, Europe matters far less than it used to - and in the
future will count for less and less. We must not only learn to share our
homelands with people from very different roots, we must also learn to share
the world with diverse peoples in a very different kind of way from what has
been the European practice.
Europe has little experience of this, and what experience it has is mainly
confined to less than half a century. Old attitudes of superiority and
disdain - dressed up in terms of free speech, progress or whatever - are
still very powerful. Nor - as many liberals like to think - are they
necessarily in decline. On the contrary, racial bigotry is on the rise, even
in countries that have previously been regarded as tolerant. The Danish
government depends for its rule on a racist, far-right party that gained 13%
of the seats in the last election. The decision of Jyllands-Posten to
publish the cartoons - and papers in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere to
reprint them - lay not so much in the tradition of free speech but in
European contempt for other cultures and religions: it was a deliberate,
calculated insult to the beliefs of others, in this case Muslims.
This kind of mentality - combining Eurocentrism, old colonial attitudes of
supremacism, racism, provincialism and sheer ignorance - will serve our
continent ill in the future. Europe must learn to live in and with the
world, not to dominate it, nor to assume it is superior or more virtuous.
Any continent that has inflicted such brutality on the world over a period
of 200 years has not too much to be proud of, and much to be modest and
humble about - though this is rarely the way our history is presented in
Britain, let alone elsewhere. It is worth remembering that while parts of
Europe have had free speech (and democracy) for many decades, its colonies
were granted neither. But when it comes to our "noble values", our colonial
record is always written out of the script.
This attitude of disdain, of assumed superiority, will be increasingly
difficult to sustain. We are moving into a world in which the west will no
longer be able to call the tune as it once did. China and India will become
major global players alongside the US, the EU and Japan. For the first time
in modern history the west will no longer be overwhelmingly dominant. By the
end of this century Europe is likely to pale into insignificance alongside
China and India. In such a world, Europe will be forced to observe and
respect the sensibilities of others.
Few in Europe understand or recognise these trends. A small example is the
bitter resistance displayed on the continent to the proposed takeover of
Arcelor by Mittal Steel: at root the opposition is based on thinly disguised
racism. But Europe had better get used to such a phenomenon: takeovers by
Indian and Chinese firms are going to become as common as American ones. A
profound parochialism grips our continent. When Europe called the global
tune it did not matter, because what happened in Europe translated itself
into a global trend and a global power. No more: now it is simply
provincialism.
When Europe dominated, there were no or few feedback loops. Or, to put it
another way, there were few, if any, consequences for its behaviour towards
the non-western world: relations were simply too unequal. Now - and
increasingly in the future - it will be very different. And the subject of
these feedback loops, or consequences, will concern not just present but
also past behaviour.
For 200 years the dominant powers have also been the colonial powers: the
European countries, the US and Japan. They have never been required to pay
their dues for what they did to those whom they possessed and treated with
contempt. Europeans have treated this chapter in their history by choosing
to forget. So has Japan, except that in its case its neighbours have not
only refused to forget but are also increasingly powerful. As a consequence,
Japan's present and future is constantly stalked by its history. This future
could also lie in wait for Europe. We might think the opium wars are "simply
history"; the Chinese (rightly) do not. We might think the Bengal famine
belongs in the last century, but Indians do not.
Europe is moving into a very different world. How will it react? If
something like the attitude of the Danes prevails - a combination of
defensiveness, fear, provincialism and arrogance - then one must fear for
Europe's ability to learn to live in this new world. There is another way,
but the signs are none too hopeful.
· Martin Jacques is a senior visiting research fellow at the Asia Research
Institute, National University of Singapore
Martinjacques1@xxxxxxx
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