European universalism presumed all societies share Europe’s underlying structure

Evidence

The architects of European consciousness had begun the construction of that world-view that presumed the basic structure of other than European societies was at its foundation a European structure, that the moral, ideological, and spiritual scaffold of these societies was the same bottom structure discernible in European culture, that the measure of mankind was indeed the European. The legend of Prester John and his wondrous realm, the formidability of this purely Christian king who waited in patience for his Christian allies at the other end of the world, all this was the form of the impulse in its appropriate medieval costume. Thus, when the miraculous kingdom could not be located in the deserts and steppes of central Asia or even Cathay, it did not cease its fascination but was transferred to the south beyond the upper Nile. The fantasy and its attendant resolve to bend the very existence and being of other peoples into convenient shapes were important beginnings for the destruction of the African past. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 518

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines a core premise of European consciousness: that non-European societies are European at foundation.
• XREF: Relates to Edward Said’s Orientalism and to the idea of the ‘civilizing mission’ as a precursor to colonial destruction. — connects to: Parsonian modernization theory treats the United States as the teleological end-state of all societies — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 158