Eurocentrism

I was considering calling this particular blog something like "Neddy Seagoon and all points south" but decided against it. The intended subject demanded a degree of gravitas that such a title would probably deny it from the word go. So "eurocentrism" it is.

But getting back to Neddy Seagoon, one radio broadcast I recall of the Goons was when Neddy was discovered in the coal cellar. He was asked ( I forget by who ) why he was in the cellar, to which he replied:- "Well, everybody gotta be somewhere." Which is profound as well as funny ( funny, especially when spoken with the Harry Seacombe voice ) Indeed, we all do have to be somewhere - even if we are "one with the all"

Neddy Seagoon

At this point in my ramblings I think it appropriate to squeeze in another quote from Alan Watts, the subject of my last blog, a few words that he evidently considered important, as he found them worth repeating at various times. The quote is:- "Differentiation does not mean separation." If any random reader of this blog considers such worthy of consideration then so be it. It does indeed fit in but please feel free to ignore it. 

Differentiation does not mean separation - perhaps I could have found a better image?

Where was I? Yes, we all have to be somewhere. Which brings me to my subject, Eurocentrism, that pernicious and ubiquitous mindset that pervades virtually all of our history books written in the past. Recently, on a Comments Section of a UK tabloid newspaper I was introduced to a more limited version of the very same thing i.e. Englandcentricism. 

As an example, applying this mindset to World War 2, it goes like this. That war began with the German invasion of Poland when England (sic) reluctantly declared war on Germany. This was followed by Dunkirk (and the "little ships") the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, and finally the D Day Landings in Normandy and the liberation of Europe.

Alone we did it

If anyone thinks I am kidding, I invite you to visit such Comments Sections and open your minds to such insular distortion of the past. Alas, as I found to my cost, to point out the contribution of other nations, of the sacrifices of other people, to speak of other theatres of war - the Eastern Front or the Pacific - was only to bring down condemnation upon me for "belittling" and "scorning" the sacrifices of my own people. Obviously, such comments sections are not really the place for an in depth discussion of "either/or" versus "both/and" so I tended to take the flak and retire to lick my wounds.

Anyway, I am drifting from my subject. One step further back from that last example of a "centrism" is of course Me-centrism. 

Having said this it must be insisted that the wisdom of Neddy Seagoon must not be resisted nor ridiculed......"Everybody got to be somewhere" or somebody. 

(You have made me a kind of center, but a center that is nowhere. And yet also I am "here." - Thomas Merton)

The eurocentric version of history is mainly plain sailing. Forget "out of Africa", just mention a few facts about Mesopotamia, the diffusion of civilisation to the Aegean and thus the ancient Greeks, the Roman Empire and its fall, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the rise of science, and how "we" spread our superiority to the rest of the backward world. A world slumbering in ignorance until "we" came along with our "saviours" and our technologies. So the story goes. Fortunately the story is unravelling. Facts will have their day it seems.

 

In my own wayward mind, of relating each thing with all others, I see a link between the unravelling of such histories and the unravelling of "self". The constraints, the parameters, our very own stories that make us what we are. Unique individuals. Unravelling or not.

We have to be somewhere, but I think we have to sit lightly, laugh at ourselves, know that others also are unique worlds in themselves, each somewhere, simply because they have to be. Then we can be open to others, to other selves, to alternative histories.

Even perhaps acknowledging the 145 Polish fighter pilots who fought in the Battle Of Britain, and honouring the 29 who gave their lives. 

302 Polish Fighter Squadron RAF