The loss of intellectual consciousness has everything to do with crimes against humanity. As the colonial empires of old Europe disbanded, a new regimen was established to preserve elements of the old status quo. Naturally, geo-political power transfers from one successor to the next. The passage of which is stimulated by hegemonic ambition. Independence is generally masked as a front for the continuance of colonialism. The occident is viewed as inherently backward with little aptitude for modernization. Terms supporting the latter are practically inseparable from Westernization. It is thought the way forward is acquired through the localization of democracy made possible by the adaptation of its values leaving room for minimal compromises. There is a reason why the best and brightest minds of the world are educated in Western universities. Ivy League training establishes an elite precedent for enlightenment which folds into an order of aggressive intellectual cohesion.
This is best characterized as a culture of control that thrives on narratives supporting the collision of civilizations. Embattled visions for civilization demand wars of attrition taken up by an intellectual elite. The personalities of which are trained to accept a program of totalitarian immersion where programs of Westernization arrive as its foundational precedent. Based on the colonial relationships of the past, a select elite are deemed fit for enlightenment and receive repatriation as the major movers of the new national states they left behind as former colonies. As long as West-centric intellectual gulags of thought exist, the underdeveloped South will remain in developmental backwater. There continues to be great reticence in allowing the global South to develop intellectually independent of Western influences. Our shared reality of technologically driven interconnectivity makes such separations less practical which is good news for the relaxation of laws governing intellectual property.
When implemented, such measures would mean the first steps taken toward the reduction of an intellectually induced hegemony from global north to south. To achieve redemption, the tutelage cementing that master servant relationship must be abandoned to offer a repressed people the ability to acquire intellectual enrichment unique to their localized standards. Western styled democracy based on Westphalian principles is responsible for the monopolization of post-colonial development. A genuine display of sovereignty is made through ideas which challenge the legitimacy of others. As long as there is no discourse of ideas that endeavor to intellectualize indigenously, civilizations will continue to clash through that master-servant relationship as both wrestle with legacies of colonialism.
Hence, the intellectual liberation of a people is not acquired under repressive dictatorships bent on preserving a world of modern colonialism after its historic passing…
Turkey’s failed coup and post-colonial custodianship!
-Image is Courtesy of Give Kids a Chance Foundation-