This imaginary of the non-European world as inherently stationary and needing to be dragged [by the West] into civilisation kicking and screaming naturally gravitated towards biological explanations of power relations. Within this context, invocations of […] infantilising tropes were not just distasteful transgressions or individual eccentricities, but rather a way of justifying the imposition and monitoring of a wide range of juridical practices of domination and disciplining.
Ntina Tzouvala, from “Capitalism as Civilisation.”
I was readying a whole rant and your quote covered all my points succinctly. But I want to feel like I’m part of the discussion so I’ll just regurgitate relevant stuff from media I enjoy
“Centrism isn’t change – not even incremental change. It is control. Over yourself and the world. Exercise it. Look up at the sky, at the dark shapes of Coalition airships hanging there. Ask yourself: is there something sinister in moralism? And then answer: no. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth.”
That first sentence is a real brain-melter
Except in this analogy somebody came into your sandbox, drew a little circle and said that’s yours and the rest is mine, keeps knocking down the sandcastle you built in your circle for several decades and then when you got mad and knocked down one of his once your parents kill you.
