Social Modernism And Colonialism

1364 Words6 Pages
Present-day classifications of the East and West are still commanded by a colonial past. Postcolonial modernity lingers through its imperialist predecessors’ emphasis on firm distinctions between the rational self, versus the irrational other; these categories of dissimilarity remain between the self and the other; the colonizer and the colonized; and tradition and modernity. Through these groupings, secular hierarchies are able to thrive even after blatant colonization has ended. The dogma formerly imposed by colonizers is continually visible politically, culturally, and socially. On the political sphere the article by Jasbir K. Puar and Amit S. Rai illustrate the Western use of nationalism, which aims to portray a “terrorist” image of…show more content…
As understood via Edward Said’s writing ‘On Orientalism’, in order to reinforce notions of normalcy in the occident, it is necessary to form the orient as its contrasting image. Puar and Rai’s “Monster, Terrorist, Fag,” examines the labels created by the modern West that aim to paint a “monster” persona in their study of Islamic extremism. Accordingly, the article states, “In these invocations of terrorist-monsters an absolute morality separates good from a ‘shadowy evil’… this discourse marks off a figure …as the opposite of all that is just, human, and good” . By drawing comparisons between terrorists to monsters the Western dialogue this reiterates past insinuations of an “us versus them” approach. ‘Us’, or the occident, as the pure and good normal beings against ‘them’, the orient, as tyrannical and deviant radicals. Further, this strategy orders any type opposition as the enemy, whether it be to the nationalism or heteronormative ideals. In other words, it is an “if you are not with us, you are against us” outlook. However, an interesting aspect of Puar and Rai’s writing is that the predicament of the self and the other in the case of the United States had turned the concept against citizens within its nation. Postcolonial modernity has created an enemy within oneself; this affliction causes an
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