Non-Western peoples read Western universalism as imperialism and threat

Evidence

The collapse of communism exacerbated this discordance by reinforcing in the West the view that its ideology of democratic liberalism had triumphed globally and hence was universally valid. The West, and especially the United States, which has always been a missionary nation, believe that the non-Western peoples should commit themselves to the Western values of democracy, free markets, limited government, human rights, individualism, the rule of law, and should embody these values in their institutions. Minorities in other civilizations embrace and promote these values, but the dominant attitudes toward them in non-Western cultures range from widespread skepticism to intense opposition. What is universalism to the West is imperialism to the rest. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 489 (#expands, via linked claim)

From this perspective, he insists, we can then better see how a variety of vernacular modernities might displace the binary division between a static concept of fixed “Tradition” and an abstracted vision of “Enlightenment Modernity.” Thus, rather than accepting the conventional story in which particularistic backward traditions are replaced by a philosophically based set of universal principles, what we see is a process in which what had initially been a specifically Western form of particularism came to successfully hegemonize large parts of the globe while presenting itself as a form of global universalism. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 153 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Decoloniality rejects postcolonialism for complicity in Western universalist thinking — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 267; Third World elites weaponized Western ideals of sovereignty and equality against the West — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1777; Western theory’s self-contained account of Europe conceals its production by imperialism — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 1783 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Western universalism functions as imperialism from the perspective of non-Western societies #expands (1.00) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 489
• Western modernity is a hegemonic particularism disguised as universalism #corroborates (0.92) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 153