#Discourse on Colonialism

[sissa-arrows]

What am I driving at? At this idea: that no one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization — and therefore force — is already a sick civilization, a civilization that is morally diseased, that irresistibly, progressing from one consequence to another, one repudiation to another, calls for its Hitler, I mean its punishment.

Aimé Césaire in Discourse on colonialism

[gael-garcia]

People are surprised, they become indignant. They say: “How strange! But never mind—it’s Nazism, it will pass!” And they wait, and they hope; and they hide the truth from themselves, that it is barbarism, the supreme barbarism, the crowning barbarism that sums up all the daily barbarisms; that it is Nazism, yes, but that before they were its victims, they were its accomplices; that they tolerated that Nazism before it was inflicted on them, that they absolved it, shut their eyes to it, legitimized it, because, until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples; that they have cultivated that Nazism, that they are responsible for it, and that before engulfing the whole edifice of Western, Christian civilization in its reddened waters, it oozes, seeps and trickles from every crack”

Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, translated by Joan Pinkham

[nando161mando]

"Whether one likes it or not, the bourgeoisie, as a class, is condemned to take responsibility for all the barbarism of history, the tortures of the Middle Ages and the Inquisition, warmongering and the appeal to the raison d’Etat, racism and slavery, in short everything against which it protested in unforgettable terms at the time when, as the attacking class, it was the incarnation of human progress."

— Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism

[propertiesofjoy]

discourse on colonialism, aimé césaire

[diaryofaphilosopher]

First we must study how colonization works to decivilize the colonizer, to brutalize him in the true sense of the word, to degrade him, to awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race hatred, and moral relativism; and we must show that each time a head is cut off or an eye put out in Vietnam and in France they accept the fact, each time a little girl is raped and in France they accept the fact, each time a Madagascan is tortured and in France they accept the fact, civilization acquires another dead weight, a universal regression takes places, a gangrene sets in, a center of infection begins to spread; and that at the end of all these treaties that have been violated, all these lies that have been propagated, all these punitive expeditions that have been tolerated, all these prisoners who have been tied up and "interrogated," all these patriots who have been tortured, at the end of all the racial pride that has been encouraged, all the boastfulness that has been displayed, a poison has been distilled into the veins of Europe and, slowly but surely, the continent proceeds toward savagery.

— Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism.

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[actualcryptidbeckreads]

[farsight-the-char]

Reading through "Discourse on Colonialism" properly and like, damn.

Shit has not changed much.

Pretty breazy read through, worked my way through it first go in less time I expected. (compliment)

[mimosita]

“What am I driving at? At this idea: that no one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization—and therefore force—is already a sick civilization, a civilization which is morally diseased, which irresistibly, progressing from one consequence to another, one denial to another, calls for its Hitler, I mean its punishment.”

― Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism

[sdpubliclibrary]

Burn All Books Newsletter

November 2024

[bobbole]

No one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization—and therefore force—is already a sick civilization, a civilization which is morally diseased.

Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism

[philosophika]

Books of the Week

Representations of the Intellectual by Edward W. Said ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

*I only share 4 and 5-star books

[diaryofaphilosopher]

The essential thing here is to see clearly, to think clearly -that is, dangerously- and to answer clearly the innocent first question: what, fundamentally, is colonization? To agree on what it is not: neither evangelization, nor a philanthropic enterprise, nor a desire to push back the frontiers of ignorance, disease, and tyranny, nor a project undertaken for the greater glory of God, nor an attempt to extend the rule of law. To admit once and for all, without flinching at the consequences, that the decisive actors are the adventurer and the pirate, the wholesale grocer and the ship owner, the gold digger and the merchant, appetite and force, and behind them, the baleful projected shadow of a form of civilization which, at a certain point in its history, finds itself obliged, for internal reasons, to extend to a world scale the competition of its antagonistic economies.

— Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism.

Follow Diary of a Philosopher for more quotes!

[umbralwaves]

Never again, but for everyone, not only for the (civilised, white, western, loved and blessed by the US government people).. Free Palestine🇵🇸🍉

— Wizard Bisan (@Wizard__Bisan) September 14, 2024

[Césaire] argues, "they tolerated that Nazism before it was inflicted on them, they absolved it, shut their eyes to it, legitimized it, because, until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples."

[xiranjayzhao]

This is why I'm side-eyeing people from the US who are only NOW acting like their world is being shattered lmao the racism and superiority came out real quick

(I am NOT talking about you if you already lost faith in US institutions way before. I was also not asking anyone to leave or do anything impossible. Literally just asked them to look more into the US' imperialist history)

Resources:

- Blowback (podcast, season 1 is about the Iraq War, season 2 is about US aggression against Cuba, season 3 is about the Korean War, season 4 is about Afghanistan, and season 5 is about Cambodia)

- The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins

- The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

- Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky

- Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II by William Blum

[la7ma-mafrooma]

The funny thing about Zionist propagandist accounts is that they're not even trying to pretend to be normal people. Every time a Zionist reblogs my posts and writes atrocious comments, their profiles are filled with them reblogging pro-Palestinian posts and writing awful things. They never actually post anything to support Israel or Zionism, which is quite hilarious. They're literally not even trying to hide that they're hired to do this. As I mentioned in previous posts regarding Zionists' comments, silence their voices by not interacting with them and simply block them. Focus your time and energy on boosting pro-Palestinian posts to amplify Palestinian voices and to keep draining the propagandists' money.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! 🇵🇸🍉

[rhaenin-time]

All this concern over "dehumanizing the colonizer" when we should all know by now that colonization dehumanizes the colonizer far more than criticism ever could.

"...that colonization, I repeat, dehumanizes even the most civilized man; that colonial activity, colonial enterprise, colonial conquest, which is based on contempt for the native and justified by that contempt, inevitably tends to change him who undertakes it..." "...that the colonizer, who in order to ease his conscience gets into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal, accustoms himself to treating him like an animal, and tends objectively to transform himself into an animal." "It is this result, the boomerang effect of colonization, that I wanted to point out."

Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism. (pg. 41)

I'm sick of these statement about dehumanizing Israelis. SHUT the fuck up about this. They're killing Palestinians because they're colonizers intent on eradicating our people. SHUT UP. They're doing nothing but protesting their goddamn government when people across the border are being starved and killed by their government. I expect them to do SOMETHING other than fucking protesting Netanyahu. Fucking put your lives on the line for Palestinians for once in your lives.