Imperialism should be granted the same epistemic gravity as the Holocaust.

Evidence

We allow justly that the Holocaust has permanently altered the consciousness of our time: Why do we not accord the same epistemological mutation in what imperialism has done, and what Orientalism continues to do? — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 36

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: this symmetry between Holocaust consciousness and imperial consciousness as twin epistemological mutations is a provocative claim the field rarely makes explicit.
• XREF: Connects to Gilroy’s or Mbembe’s framing of race/colonialism as constitutive of modernity on a par with the Holocaust in consciousness-shaping terms.

Related

• Empire continues reshaping colonized peoples’ lives long after formal decolonization (similarity 0.84)
• Imperialism is the necessary logical consequence of cultural universalism. (similarity 0.80)
• Crossing the imperial divide enables critique that maintains barriers cannot produce (similarity 0.80)
• Said’s timeless conception of orientalism actually undermined his anti-imperialist stance (similarity 0.80)
• Advanced cultures only offered racism and imperialism for dealing with other cultures (similarity 0.79)
• The Holocaust’s exceptional status, not the event, was produced by the theology of progress (similarity 0.79)
• Modern imperialism and antisemitism emerged together in the late nineteenth century. (similarity 0.78)
• The Holocaust intensified a colonial ideology the West already practiced elsewhere (similarity 0.78)
• Western genocidal forms share a common colonial frame of mind (similarity 0.78)