Europe or more accurately Western Europe had a decisive, profound and long lasting impact on the world. The intellectual, political and cultural ferment called the Renaissance shaped Europe’s understanding of itself, imbued it with confidence and vigour. This new self-understanding led Europe to embark on crusading adventures which went under the name of Imperialism and colonialism. The post Enlightenment Europe saw, came and conquered, so to speak. The non-western world came under the European onslaught and could not even fight a rear guard action.
The resistance to European rule which ensued after Imperialism had become firmly ensconced and institutionalized was framed in the idiom of Europe: nationalism. Such was the power of Europe or the European idea. Nativist reaction happened when Europeanized native elites internalized the ideas of freedom, liberty, equality and nationalism and used these against the respective imperial metropoles. The European ideas were taken up by people as diverse as the Japanese, the Chinese, the Turks and even the Arabs. To be modern was to be European. (Muslim modernists aimed and aspired for a synthesis between Islam and Western ideas; the Japanese Meiji Restoration successfully did the same).
Europe was held to be the apogee of success and modernity. Everything was articulated in the European idiom. The rest was mere corollary and reaction. In a curious twist of fate or less fatalistically, this Europe is dead. It no longer exists. To quote the American strategist, Donald Rumsfeld, what we have now is ‘Old Europe’.
Contemporary Europe is a pale shadow and husk of its former self. It is a sulking, brooding and inward looking entity that is at best an obstructionist force in world politics and at worst a squabbling entity that cannot get its act together. It broods and its ire is directed either against the immigrant or the United States. It cannot figure out who or what force is its other: Islam or the United States? It is a fortress like entity that is afraid of new and foreign influences. It excludes foreign influences literally and figuratively. The former happens when it looks down upon and excludes the foreigner and the latter when Europe collectively shuts itself to foreign ideas.
What does this tell us about a once great civilization and history? It tells us that civilizational vigour and vitality is not contingent upon place, location or race but rather accrues from receptivity to ideas, bold thinking and cultural efflorescence. And it also tells us that unless a civilization or a society remains true and wedded to these principles, history brutally tramples it.
Is the West dead then? No. The west or the western idea is very much alive. It has, however, migrated. The western idea lives on in the doyen of the contemporary west- the United States and other Anglophone and Anglosaxon countries like Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. It is here that the western idea thrives and even radiates.
The question then is what does this mean and imply for non-western cultures and societies? Where should we, to invert an expression and phrase , turn our gaze to?
By turning the gaze, it is not implied that the non-west should enter into a confrontation with the west. What is meant here is where and who should the non west engage in? First, we must get rid of the colonial baggage that lurks in our collective unconscious. Colonialism or imperialism no longer exists. What exists is a world which is defined by massive and unprecedented contact of peoples , nations and societies. To stave off conflict, it is imperative that engagement rather than friction and confrontation define our approach.
In this fluid world, what is needed is mutual learning and understanding and this can happen when the west and the east enter into a dialogue. This means being curious about each other and absorbing the best that either has to offer. In this sense, when we direct our gaze toward the west, we should engage with the Anglophone and Anglosaxon west. It is here that a meeting point between civilizations can be found and a new synthesis forged that van redound positively to civilization.
Europe died in 1914. Gavrillo Princip fired the first shot into the carcass of Europe and its obituary was read by Hitler. It cannot be recuperated or resuscitated. Europe is even not on a ventilator. It is therefore about time that we, no-westerners throw off our colonial hangovers, let these die with Europe and engage anew with the Neo west. If we do so, and engage in a dialogue with this neo West in an idiom defined by mutual learning, respect and osmosis, the world will be a better place. We owe this to our future generations.
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