12-10-2009, 11:03 PM
The trouble with Third World leftists - The Indian Express
Gautam Sen ()
12 March 1997
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Title : The trouble with Third World leftists
Author : Gautam Sen
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : March 12, 1997
The failure of Third World elites to understand the West is partly
due to what can be described as sample bias, although private
career interests are important as well. Their exposure to the West
is primarily through its universities which are relatively liberal
though largely powerless. And exposure to the Left in countries
like the UK is especially consequential because, while their
radical views have little impact on their own societies, they
successfully brainwash Third World elites who wield power at home.
Academics like Maurice Dobb and Harold Laski who decisively
perverted the world-view of a whole generation of Indians were
cranks, irrelevant to the governing elites of Britain. But even
now Indians recall these names with misguided awe.
The principal damage inflicted by such Western duplicity is to
encourage Third World intellectuals to oppose their domestic ruling
order implacably, in the name of the class struggle, even if it
fatally undermines the state apparatus. The dire necessity of a
strong state, domestic social cohesion and military prowess are
thus opposed by this strata of Third World society.
The other lamentable deficiency in their education is the obsession
with the idea of progress. The consequence is the belief that the
world is gradually becoming a better place and Western societies
and their politicians today are better than their ruthless
predecessors. There is no evidence for sustaining this conviction,
but it aids old-fashioned re-conquest of the Third World.
The Left in the UK is completely united with its government in the
murderous project in Iraq. One Israeli diplomat has remarked that
Saddam Hussein was always his country's preferred choice because he
was the only politician capable of preventing Iraq from allying
with either Syria and/or Iran - "he represents equilibrium", he
asserted. According to him, the US and its allies had always
supported Saddam and it was only his nuclear ambitions that
prompted intervention.
The allure of international seminars as well as the fear of
traditional bases of Third World protest, inevitably religious,
reinforces the covert and, increasingly, public support of Third
World Leftists for Western imperialism. The backing of the
international Left and its Third World allies for the mass murder
taking place in Algeria is a case in point. India's secular Left
wing defenders of Islam quickly adopt the militant anti-Islamic
rhetoric of their Western sponsors as soon as they land at the
airport!
Given the enduring influence of colonial education, only prolonged
and deep estrangement from the dominant Western intellectual
perspective allows one to see things differently. China's elites,
unlike India's, are relatively immune, because they do not
understand English and cannot therefore absorb this virus as a
matter of course.
It is noteworthy that the two societies which gave authentic
verdict to significant recent events are theocracies that value
their intellectual autonomy. Iran was perturbed by the destruction
of Iraq during the Gulf War despite Iraq's bloody aggression
against it earlier. And Israel lodged the solitary protest against
the mass murder of Bosnia's Muslims. The ignorant and sycophantic
Indians sent a parliamentary delegation to Belgrade to commiserate
with Slobodan Milosevic, the architect of genocide in Bosnia.
A momentous military and economic re-conquest is therefore
occurring without the necessary response on a war-footing from the
elites of countries like India. Western powers are penetrating and
occupying the Third World through investment and trade, helped
powerfully by the control of international credit and treaties like
the World Trade Organisation as well as the transmission of ideas
and sources of individual reward. The military dimension of this
policy has already been demonstrated in Iraq, with terrible
consequences for its civilian population. India, Iran and North
Korea are now in the firing line.
(The writer is a lecturer in the politics of the world economy at
the London School of Economics)
Gautam Sen ()
12 March 1997
Messages sorted by: [ author ]
[ publication ][ subject ][ thread ]
Next message: Prakash Singh : "UP on the Verge of a breakdown"
Previous message: Bhavna Vij : "Crime figures contrived to enhance Bhandari's image"
Title : The trouble with Third World leftists
Author : Gautam Sen
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : March 12, 1997
The failure of Third World elites to understand the West is partly
due to what can be described as sample bias, although private
career interests are important as well. Their exposure to the West
is primarily through its universities which are relatively liberal
though largely powerless. And exposure to the Left in countries
like the UK is especially consequential because, while their
radical views have little impact on their own societies, they
successfully brainwash Third World elites who wield power at home.
Academics like Maurice Dobb and Harold Laski who decisively
perverted the world-view of a whole generation of Indians were
cranks, irrelevant to the governing elites of Britain. But even
now Indians recall these names with misguided awe.
The principal damage inflicted by such Western duplicity is to
encourage Third World intellectuals to oppose their domestic ruling
order implacably, in the name of the class struggle, even if it
fatally undermines the state apparatus. The dire necessity of a
strong state, domestic social cohesion and military prowess are
thus opposed by this strata of Third World society.
The other lamentable deficiency in their education is the obsession
with the idea of progress. The consequence is the belief that the
world is gradually becoming a better place and Western societies
and their politicians today are better than their ruthless
predecessors. There is no evidence for sustaining this conviction,
but it aids old-fashioned re-conquest of the Third World.
The Left in the UK is completely united with its government in the
murderous project in Iraq. One Israeli diplomat has remarked that
Saddam Hussein was always his country's preferred choice because he
was the only politician capable of preventing Iraq from allying
with either Syria and/or Iran - "he represents equilibrium", he
asserted. According to him, the US and its allies had always
supported Saddam and it was only his nuclear ambitions that
prompted intervention.
The allure of international seminars as well as the fear of
traditional bases of Third World protest, inevitably religious,
reinforces the covert and, increasingly, public support of Third
World Leftists for Western imperialism. The backing of the
international Left and its Third World allies for the mass murder
taking place in Algeria is a case in point. India's secular Left
wing defenders of Islam quickly adopt the militant anti-Islamic
rhetoric of their Western sponsors as soon as they land at the
airport!
Given the enduring influence of colonial education, only prolonged
and deep estrangement from the dominant Western intellectual
perspective allows one to see things differently. China's elites,
unlike India's, are relatively immune, because they do not
understand English and cannot therefore absorb this virus as a
matter of course.
It is noteworthy that the two societies which gave authentic
verdict to significant recent events are theocracies that value
their intellectual autonomy. Iran was perturbed by the destruction
of Iraq during the Gulf War despite Iraq's bloody aggression
against it earlier. And Israel lodged the solitary protest against
the mass murder of Bosnia's Muslims. The ignorant and sycophantic
Indians sent a parliamentary delegation to Belgrade to commiserate
with Slobodan Milosevic, the architect of genocide in Bosnia.
A momentous military and economic re-conquest is therefore
occurring without the necessary response on a war-footing from the
elites of countries like India. Western powers are penetrating and
occupying the Third World through investment and trade, helped
powerfully by the control of international credit and treaties like
the World Trade Organisation as well as the transmission of ideas
and sources of individual reward. The military dimension of this
policy has already been demonstrated in Iraq, with terrible
consequences for its civilian population. India, Iran and North
Korea are now in the firing line.
(The writer is a lecturer in the politics of the world economy at
the London School of Economics)