'Le Monde diplomatique-----------------------------------------------------
January 2009
FROM THERMOPYLAE TO THE TWIN TOWERS
The West's selective reading of history
by Alain Gresh
Shortly after the first world war, the French literary critic
and historian Henri Massis (1886-1970) preached a crusade
against the dangers threatening European values and thought -
largely identified with those of France, in his mind. He
wasn't entirely misguided: across the world, colonised
nations were in revolt. He wrote: "The future of western
civilisation, of humanity itself, is now under threat...
Every traveller, every foreigner who has spent any time in
the Far East agrees that the way in which the population
thinks has changed more in the last 10 years than it did over
10 centuries. The old, easy-going submissiveness has given
way to blind hostility - sometimes genuine hatred, just
waiting for the right moment to act. From Calcutta to
Shanghai, from the steppes of Mongolia to the plains of
Anatolia, the whole of Asia trembles with a blind desire for
freedom. These people no longer recognise the supremacy that
the West has taken for granted since John Sobieski
conclusively stemmed the Turkish and Tartar invasions beneath
the walls of Vienna. Instead they aspire to rebuild their
unity against the white man, whose overthrow they
proclaim" (1).
These fears are resurfacing today in a very different
context, also marked by a series of cataclysmic events: the
end of the cold war, 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
and above all the restructuring of the global order in favour
of new powers, such as China and India. Various authors, many
of them highly regarded, have picked up on the Manichean view
of history as an eternal confrontation between civilisation
and barbarism as they excavate the roots of what Anthony
Pagden calls the "2,500-year struggle" now bathing the world
in blood.
Pagden has taught in some of the world's most prestigious
universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. The
picture he paints of world history is a crude one: "A flame
had been lit in Troy which would burn steadily down the
centuries, as the Trojans were succeeded by the Persians, the
Persians by the Phoenicians, the Phoenicians by Parthians,
the Parthians by the Sassanids, the Sassanids by the Arabs,
and the Arabs by the Ottoman Turks... The battle lines have
shifted over time, and the identities of the antagonists have
changed. But both sides' broader understanding of what it is
that separates them has remained, drawing, as do all such
perceptions, on accumulated historical memories, some
reasonably accurate, some entirely false" (2).'
and historian Henri Massis (1886-1970) preached a crusade
against the dangers threatening European values and thought -
largely identified with those of France, in his mind. He
wasn't entirely misguided: across the world, colonised
nations were in revolt. He wrote: "The future of western
civilisation, of humanity itself, is now under threat...
Every traveller, every foreigner who has spent any time in
the Far East agrees that the way in which the population
thinks has changed more in the last 10 years than it did over
10 centuries. The old, easy-going submissiveness has given
way to blind hostility - sometimes genuine hatred, just
waiting for the right moment to act. From Calcutta to
Shanghai, from the steppes of Mongolia to the plains of
Anatolia, the whole of Asia trembles with a blind desire for
freedom. These people no longer recognise the supremacy that
the West has taken for granted since John Sobieski
conclusively stemmed the Turkish and Tartar invasions beneath
the walls of Vienna. Instead they aspire to rebuild their
unity against the white man, whose overthrow they
proclaim" (1).
These fears are resurfacing today in a very different
context, also marked by a series of cataclysmic events: the
end of the cold war, 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
and above all the restructuring of the global order in favour
of new powers, such as China and India. Various authors, many
of them highly regarded, have picked up on the Manichean view
of history as an eternal confrontation between civilisation
and barbarism as they excavate the roots of what Anthony
Pagden calls the "2,500-year struggle" now bathing the world
in blood.
Pagden has taught in some of the world's most prestigious
universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. The
picture he paints of world history is a crude one: "A flame
had been lit in Troy which would burn steadily down the
centuries, as the Trojans were succeeded by the Persians, the
Persians by the Phoenicians, the Phoenicians by Parthians,
the Parthians by the Sassanids, the Sassanids by the Arabs,
and the Arabs by the Ottoman Turks... The battle lines have
shifted over time, and the identities of the antagonists have
changed. But both sides' broader understanding of what it is
that separates them has remained, drawing, as do all such
perceptions, on accumulated historical memories, some
reasonably accurate, some entirely false" (2).'
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