European civilization is judged decadent by its own inability to solve the colonial problem

Evidence

A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. … A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a stricken civilization. … A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization. … The fact is that the so-called European civilization – “Western” civilization - as it has been shaped by two centuries of bourgeois rule, is incapable of solving the two major problems to which its existence has given rise: the problem of the proletariat and the colonial problem; that Europe is unable to justify itself either before the bar of “reason” or before the bar of “conscience”; and that, increasingly, it takes refuge in a hypocrisy which is all the more odious because it is less and less likely to deceive. — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 5

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘decadent civilization’ as one unable to solve the problems its own existence creates — the foundational diagnostic Césaire applies to Europe.
• XREF: Sets up the central indictment of colonial hypocrisy that later Islamophobia readings will echo — Europe’s claim to civilize while ruling by force. — connects to: Colonial destruction of other cultures undermines the colonizer’s own civilization — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 247

Related

• Colonial destruction of other cultures undermines the colonizer’s own civilization (similarity 0.85)
• Belief in commerce’s pacifying virtues collapsed only when colonial violence came home to Europe (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Colonial destruction of other cultures undermines the colonizer’s own civilization #expands (0.90) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 247