Colonial power instrumentalized reason and thereby corrupted modernity’s promise

Evidence

It is necessary to extricate oneself from the linkages between rationality/modernity and coloniality, first of all, and definitely from all power which is not constituted by free decisions made by free people. It is the instrumentalization of the reasons for power, of colonial power in the first place, which produced distorted paradigms of knowledge and spoiled the liberating promises of modernity. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 615

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out Quijano’s core causal thesis connecting coloniality to distorted knowledge paradigms.
• XREF: connects to: Instrumental reason’s refinement is what destroys rational civilization — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1307; Colonialism constitutes modernity itself rather than merely deriving from it — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 44; Colonialism created the conditions for modern capitalism’s emergence — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 251 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Colonialism constitutes modernity itself rather than merely deriving from it #corroborates (0.85) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 44
• If modernity depends on colonialism, the two are inseparable #expands (0.85) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 104
• Colonial-era governance oscillated between reason and sentiment rather than reason alone #qualifies (0.80) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 445
• Colonialism created the conditions for modern capitalism’s emergence #complicates (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 251