Western domination depended on inventing a singular undivided West

Evidence

We cannot attempt to resolve here the age-old sociological debate as to which came first: the idea of “the West,” or Western societies. What we can say is that as these societies emerged, so a concept and language of “the West” crystallized. And yet, we can be certain that the idea of “the West” did not simply reflect an already-established Western society: rather, it was essential to the very formation of that society. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 514 (#expands, via linked claim)

What Orientalism offered was not just a technical knowledge of Oriental languages, religious beliefs and methods of government, but a series of absolute differences according to which the Oriental could be understood as the negative of the European. These differences were not the differences within a self, which would be understood as an always-divided identity; they were the differences between a self and its opposite, the opposite that makes possible such an imaginary, undivided self. The Orient was backward, irrational, and disordered, and therefore in need of European order and authority: the domination of the West over the non-Western world depended on this manner of creating a ‘West’, a singular Western self-identity. Like the ‘Arab town’, the Orient was created as the apparent exterior of the West; as with the colonial city, what is outside is paradoxically what makes the West what it is, the excluded yet integral part of its identity and power. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 519 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Neoliberals anachronistically invented a Western-civilization lineage to delegitimize their opponents. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 70; Western rule shrank from half the earth’s land to its core plus settler lands; Western dominance rested on organized violence, not superior ideas (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• The idea of the West helped constitute the West itself #expands (0.95) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 514
• The imagined unity of the West depends on creating an opposite called the Orient #corroborates (0.92) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 519