Status Updates From Decolonization and the Deco...

“our common salvation is at stake.”
“maybe history, for the most part, simply passes us by and we have no other recourse than to let time pass, with the hope that things will improve. But if we can act toward fulfilling our shared destiny, even a little, if we can play some role in it, no matter how small, it would be unforgivable for us not to have tried.”

The afterward states the formerly colonized were not scandalized or surprised by the book, and media reception was generous and courteous. The media of the former colonizers were more opposed to it.

“A coalition of free spirits against dogmatists and their fanaticism.” “Our common salvation is at stake.”
Critical pieces at the end as at the beginning: fighting poverty and corruption.

‘The Arab-Muslim world must recognize and acknowledge, exactly contrary to fundamentalism, that the West is now a part of their world, just as the West must acknowledge that Muslims are a part of their world.’ Not to reject the best of the West bc of its origin, akin to rejecting algebra for its, but to embrace it becoming part of a shared heritage.

“Secularism is not a ban on religious practice, which would be another form of tyranny. It is an institutional agreement to protect freedom of thought for everyone”

“The normal and desirable destiny of any immigrant is to transform himself into a citizen.”

“Although [fundamentalists] cannot win the war, they can destroy peace… it would mean making the world unlivable for those they claim to defend.” “It is often active minorities that make history.” ‘Their intent is to destroy Arab regimes one by one and harass the West into global confrontation.’
“It cannot live in symbiosis with the West and show indulgence toward those who desire its destruction.”

“Waiting for salvation from a colonial power, now a former colonial power, is as illusory as it is for women to expect to attain their liberation through male goodwill.”

The wealth earned within a company is invested abroad, where it expands foreign financial markets or inflates the housing market in Western capitals… entire streets in London, through dummy company intermediaries, have come under ownership of third-world investors.
There is objective complicity among the privileged, which extend beyond borders & continents. Why would they change a situation that benefits them?

“Fundamentalism is conducted, from within and without, as a form of continuous war.” “To claim that everything resides in the Koran means there is nothing outside of it; that anyone who does not follow the Koran falls outside the bounds of humanity and deserves to be treated with the utmost severity… Christianity did the same until the separation of religion and politics.”

“Marxism has been transformed into a new religion, dogmatic and exclusive, but without the habitual appeal of religion: the reassuring rituals and mythic hopes.”

“Europe no longer has a system of ethics capable of providing new guidelines. Skeptical and blasé like the elderly, it promotes an easygoing leniency, but the lack of civic pride is not freedom but anarchy.”

“Europe no longer defends itself spiritually or even militarily since it had turned over its defense to the US.”

Christianity as ritual and cultural background, comparing its influence to Hellenism.
Then Marxism - nationalism vs socialism, religion vs Enlightenment philosophy for younger countries

Heavily disagree with simple diagnosis of Europe’s issues here tho I appreciate the Marshall plan mention.

“The majority of Europeans, including believers, have won the right of not having to subject the entirety of their life to a church.” ‘Relatively young and thus more demanding religions might not have accomplished this separation. They remain both prophecy and legislation, the civil code and religious code coincide… how can unconditional submission to tradition be balanced when deviation is betrayal?’

“Like any foreigner, the immigrant is perceived as a potential traitor… the immigrant community is suspected of jeopardizing the cohesion, if not the interests of the host country.. like a Trojan horse.”

This section is def weak and fairly criticized but “intruding into the works of the majority, which is forced to look at these unwanted messages” is an interesting comment.

On the police in various neighborhoods

‘The immigrant delights in advantages obtained with such difficulty but for his children they are never enough. Assimilation, the parents’ great hope,seems instead a humiliating constraint for the children, when it is finally within grasp.
The lack of understanding between generations can become hostile, contemptuous. The son does not fear the police like the father who retains the reflexes of an immigrant.’

“To justify the unjustifiable, the apologist twists the neck of truth and justice.” His complaisance and bad faith…

Unconditional solidarity in diplomacy undermining credibility and preventing the emergence of true international law.

The importance of solidarity, righting wrongs, aiding poor, strengthening community, providing protection. “But it becomes unjust whenever it is unconditional.”

“Solidarity has transformed itself into an imperious duty which transcends the law, which is perceived as a creation of the West to serve its own interests, a not inaccurate statement.”
Moderates will be punished along with infidels. An objective responsibility imposed in all in face of the immoral condition facing them, whoever withdraws is considered a traitor for playing into the enemy’s hands.

“Solidarity automatically generates indulgence.”

Contradiction between desiring the destruction of a society where one also desires assimilation

“Resentment is still an expression of dependence.”

Crime and where American journalists place blame, regardless of how the story changes

Afrofuturism, nostalgic superhuman mythical past and fabulous future