The recent dizzying developments in the Middle East, Latin America and Europe, as well as the Ukraine-Russia war, have accelerated the debate on what the West is and what it is not. Trump's brazenness, his intervention against the leaders of countries and his threats against the countries he wants to colonize have caused discomfort all over the world.
European leaders continue to make statement after statement.
As a country and a nation, we cannot look at domestic and foreign problems objectively and distinguish between what is right and what is wrong because we do not use the concepts in their proper place, we are biased in every issue and cannot be fair, we ignore the fires in other neighborhoods, and we fume when fires break out in our own neighborhood.
The problem is not pro-Western or anti-Western, pro-American or anti-American, the problem is that the problems are not dealt with scientifically, historically and sociologically, and that solutions are produced purely on the basis of hamas and domestic politics.
Yes, the countries that seem to be the most just on a world scale today, the most favored countries in terms of economic, cultural, political and welfare levels are the Western countries, but this does not eliminate their reality and their past.
I had recently read the analysis sent to me by Assoc. Prof. Fikret Başkaya, but I could not address it due to my busy schedule. “How do you know Western civilization?” This observation by William Howitt in the introduction to his analysis is noteworthy.
Howitt says;
“The savagery and cruelty of this race called Christianity against the peoples they have been able to subjugate all over the world is unparalleled by any other race, no matter how savage, no matter how ruthless and shameless, in any age.”
Hodja Başkaya quotes Samuel P. Huntington, the author of The Clash of Civilizations, as saying:
“If the West has won the world, it is not because of the superiority of its culture, religion or values, but because of its superiority in the use of organized violence. This is the truth that Westerners often forget, and others never think about...”
And he quotes Frantz Fanon who said that “(foreign) capitalists have done nothing but commit crimes in the underdeveloped world for centuries”.
I wanted to share Fikret Başkaya's analysis with you as it sheds light on the past, present and future of the West.
Fikret hoca says;
“Like a calf that gravitates towards its mother's udder as soon as it is born, it raises its head and looks to the West, why? Because it is considered the symbol of abundance, prosperity, freedom and democracy.
But it is not for nothing that it is said that it is not where one looks, but from where one looks. So two things: one, is it really as it is reported, and two, what reflects back to you from there?
Capitalism forms the deep core of the so-called “Western Civilization” that emerged on the stage of history with the adventure of Christopher Columbus. Capitalism means exploitation, plunder, pillage, plunder, genocide, colonialism, imperialism, war, exploitation of wage labor, exploitation of unpaid women's labor, patriarchy, plunder and pillage of nature.
In his Manual of Political Economy, published in 1616, Antoine de Montchetien wrote that the European's ’civilizing mission is to make known the name of God, our Creator, to all these barbarous peoples, devoid of civilization, who are ready to come under our sovereignty, who beg us with outstretched arms, who call upon us to set them on the path of salvation with lessons of high morality and sublime examples.“.
“Barbarian peoples” The process of Christianization and subjugation started fast.
When Christopher Columbus landed on the American islands, the population of the continent was 80 million, by the middle of the sixteenth century (some 60 years later) the population of the Americas had dwindled to 10 million...
Christian Westerners, the epitome of civilization, have killed 70 million people in half a century. “Christian Paradise” and they managed to send it.
Considering that the world population at the beginning of the 16th century was around 400 million, exterminating 70 million people in half a century must have been a “great achievement”.
‘There is nothing new on the Western Front: Christianizing the uncivilized savages, ‘civilizing’ them, ‘making them like themselves’, introducing them to the unparalleled superior civilization of the West, developing them, ‘modernizing’ them, ‘adapting’ them, ‘globalizing’ them, in short, ‘making them men’...
The societies they colonized, which they initially considered “savages” or “barbarians”, were later called “backward”, “underdeveloped countries”, and after the Second World War, “countries on the road to development”.
In the age of neoliberal globalization, they now call it the Global South... Yet what the Christian ‘White Man’ has done in the past five hundred years or so has been nothing but committing crimes against humanity.
But what is good and what is bad, what is a crime and what is good “Civilized White Men” and so it was not possible to understand what it all meant, what it meant for whom.
Over time, the peoples they enslaved, colonized, subjugated, their histories, cultures and identities destroyed and amnesiacized, mistook the master's eyes for their own, and when they began to look through his eyes, Western domination had gained a strong foundation and triumphed.
There were no more eyes to see other than the eyes of the colonizer, colonialism had become internalized.
The real colonialism is the colonization of consciousness.
To put it differently, it is the alienation of man from himself, from his own reality... When that ‘critical threshold’ was crossed, the people of colonized peoples began to look at themselves and others through the eyes of the Western master.
Of course, we need to nuance what we say.
Colonized or semi-colonized peoples have never accepted what the Western-Christian colonizer imposed.
They could not be expected to be their own executioners.
From the very first day they rebelled against enslavement, massacre, humiliation, exploitation, and this went on and on.
Since history was written by the masters and their ideological lackeys, the cry of the oppressed would not resonate, and would drown in the ocean of silence.
For colonialism to become internalized, ‘indigenous elements’, ‘indigenous missionaries’, what Franz Fanon called White Negroes and Ali Shariati called Assimilated monkeys, had to come into play. For the colonization of consciousness is only possible in the case of “voluntary acceptance”.
If it were not for the local “enlightened elites” who had a vested interest in cooperation with the colonialists, colonialism would not have been established and imperialism would not have triumphed.
Unfortunately, there is nothing new on the “Eastern Front’ today either...
Racism and fascism are an incurable virus inherent in Western civilization.
Fascism is not a road accident. It is a constructive element of the collective consciousness of the West.
The atrocities that emerged in Europe in the first half of the 20th century, called Fascism and Nazism, were no exception.
It was just the transfer to Europe of what had been done for centuries in other parts of the world (America, Africa, Asia, Australia, etc.).
For the first time in nearly five hundred years, the brutality and brutality that had become commonplace elsewhere in the world was on display in the heart of Europe, and the “civilized European” seemed surprised...
They probably meant to say: Wasn't this for others?
The act of genocide (ethnic cleansing) against Jews and other non-Aryan races was not something that could be passed over with the trial of Nazi criminals in one court (Nuremberg).
Indeed, when fanatical pro-nazis came to power in South Africa in 1948, they had the full support of the “civilized world”.
The emergence of Zionist Israel on Palestinian soil at the same time... It was never surprising that Zionist Israel fully supported the fanatical apartheid regime of South Africa...
For those who wonder what Western Civilization is “Look at Gaza and you'll understand” It will be called...
And Syria, of course...
It is a classic of the “civilized West” to declare Ahmet Shara, a notorious terrorist with a 30 million dollar bounty on his head, the murderer of thousands of innocent people, as the head of state in a hurry, and it is not an exception.
In short, there is no limit to hypocrisy and shamelessness...
On this occasion, it is necessary to avoid a misunderstanding...
The civilized West means exploitation, plunder, pillage, massacres, racism, genocide, wars of aggression, imperialism, colonialism, Hiroshima, Nagasaki... but it also means enlightenment, modernity revolution, freedom and democracy...
So what is the level of their realization in the West?
And that much was possible thanks to the exploitation, plunder and plunder of the rest of the world?
And what does that mean to you?” Fikret concludes with the question...