Colonialism, Fascism, Totalitarianism
I know there are mysteries in the world much more mysterious than this, but still — how could I have gone this long without discovering Mandy Brown’s A Working Library? There’s so much there, and I look forward to exploring what she’s done.
I appreciate her introducing me to to Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism. This author and book are new to me; I’ve requested a copy of the book from my local library. I’m particularly interested in it for two reasons. First, I’m wondering how his work on colonialism relates to that of Hannah Arendt. There’s no index entry for Césaire in Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, though Wikipedia suggests that she at least agreed with one of his central points: that European countries eventually incorporated some of the oppressive tactics against their own citizens that they had first used against their colonies. I wonder, though, whether Césaire would agree with Arendt that anti-Semitism was also a crucial element shaping the policies of what she called totalitarianism (and not simply fascism) in Germany in the 1930s and 40s.
A second interest relates to my current reading plan. Many (though not all) of my current book selections are books that I think might help me understand and respond to what’s going in the United States (and some other countries) today. Arendt is already on my reading list; based on Brown’s comments and some of my preliminary investigations of Césaire’s work, I’m thinking that he might provide some additional understanding of how the current U.S. administration is employing security strategies first developed in other countries on citizens and others living in the States.