|
|
American Culture: A Possible Threat
| Article
# : |
12923 |
|
|
Section : |
BOOK WORLD
|
| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1987 |
1,165 Words |
| Author
: |
Thomas Molnar
|
A vast number of books published during the last thirty years about the Third World contain only as much reality as conforms to the author's biases. Many of these books are haphazard compilations of statistical information with hastily drawn conclusions. Alain de Benoist, known in Europe for his nonconformist views, offers an explanation for the weakness of Third World studies, distinguishing three stages of Western interest - or lack of interest - in former colonial territories.
The first phase extended from before World War II to the late fifties, decades in which the colonies and other "exotic" lands were described in terms of metropolitan interest: the raw materials they offered, the merchandise they absorbed, the cost of administering them, and the prestige they represented for a colonial power in a world where square miles and cultural influence counted.
The second phase lasted from roughly 1960 to the late seventies. In this period, enthusiasm for decolonization and for the heroic halo surrounding the newly independent countries reached its peak: Nkrumah, Sukarno, Ben Bella, Nasser, Nehru could do no wrong. Western media took them for models of heroism and statesmanship; the white man became positively ashamed of his color. The Nehru jacket was the rage of cocktail parties, and London admired Nkrumah although he rapidly squandered the billions that had been given to Ghana by the British. The handful of new countries in which government was relatively honest and efficient - first among them the Ivory Coast - and where the white man was neither massacred nor ignored as entrepreneur, teacher, and adviser were dismissed by the enthusiasts as stooges and Uncle Toms.
Inevitably, a third (and current) phase in the relationship to former colonies emerged by the midseventies. Suddenly former enthusiasts, who had supported industrialization of jungle and desert, made an about-face and showed contempt for the natives' inefficiency in running the steel mills, airlines, and factory complexes that Western governments were shipping to Africa and Asia. New regimes were blamed for donors' errors of judgment. The Third World was dismissed to wallow forever in underdevelopment.
Few had the courage, in the course of all three stages, to draw up an honest balance sheet for Western involvement with Third World territories.
Benoist's Thesis
It is at this point that we are well advised to join Benoist's study of the situation. Let me begin directly with his thesis. Benoist asserts that the United States, because of missionary zeal in spreading its own way of life and because of commercial interests, has been imposing on Third World countries its products and methods. The American public hears of public and private generosity in rushing food to famine-stricken areas, evacuating victims of disasters, and offering compensation for damage suffered (such as Dow Chemical's aid to India's Bhopal).
What is not grasped is that America, and the Western nations generally, have appeared in other parts of the world not merely as commercial and industrial entrepreneurs, but as powers determined to mold "primitive natives" so that they change their way of doing things. This is an old issue that neither Benoist nor other critics will ever settle. After
...
Read Full Article
|
|
