Fanon Fridays
Ok so I’m watching the news, a “left” leaning news affiliate at that, and I thought to myself about the paradigm of how Western media present criticism to the war in Afghanistan is so disgustingly egocentric. The perspective is shaped from how America is in some sort of way losing its innocence from participating in this war. It’s about how soldiers are needlessly losing their lives in this war, and are suffering irreversible psychological effects. I’m not Nell Carter, but give me a break! It’s typical of those in power to always place themselves at the center of conversation and debate, with total disregard of those who are affected by their actions. Genocide of Indigenous Americans, the enslavement of Africans, the theft of the Southwestern Territories, and every other atrocity always becomes not about those affected by these atrocities; but a reduction of the victims to that of an object to maintain the perpetrator’s perspective as the only one that matters. Of course, Fanon had a critique of this pathological narcissism of Imperialism. While reading this quote from Fanon just simply substitute “American” for “French”, and it becomes apparent that Fanon is as apropos today as he was in his time.
The gravity of the tortures, the horror of the rape of little Algerian girls, are perceived because their existence threatens a certain idea of French honor. This attitude is worth meditating. Such shutting out of the Algerian, such ignoring of the tortured man or of the massacred family, constitute a wholly original phenomenon. It belongs to that form of egocentric, sociocentric thinking which has become the characteristic of the French.
Frantz Fanon Toward the African Revolution pg. 71
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