My Thoughts...

So.... below are my thoughts that I posted as a comment... I think I might have this figured out now...

The World As An Idea:

Ok, so I don't really know what was said in discussion Monday night since I was not there, so I am just going to comment on a few things in the reading that stood out to me...

First of all, it struck me that Young was incredibly blunt in his views on colonialism. It wasn't until reading his description of the differences between imperialism and colonialism that I really thought of them as separate. I have always viewed them as very much intertwined.

Another random statement that for some reason caught my attention was the statement that the elimination of the French in Canada eliminated a threat and encouraged the American colonies to seek independence from Britain. I had never stopped to think about it that way... Maybe that's just me and my limited in-depth study of American history, which is about to change as I have been assigned to teach US History for the first time after teaching World History for five years.

Another point that really caught my attention in these readings as well as my readings for another class is that some cultures seem to take on this idea that their culture is superior to all others simply because other cultures are different... What gives people the idea that they are better just because others are different? Maybe I don't get it because I generally tend to be way more critical of myself than I am of others... I don't know.

Another element of the readings that stood out to me was the pessimist/optimist approach in Fieldhouse. Maybe it is because of my worldview but I don't think that relations between the West and the Third World can ever be viewed in such black and white terms. It is so much more complicated than that in my opinion. I think that we need to consider why we have taken the approach we have with our interactions with the Third World and as one of the wealthier nations in the world what our responsibility is to help the countries in the Third World develop so they can support themselves. And we also need to acknowledge that we could do so much more to encourage the development of these countries.

Sorry if my comments seem random and scatter-brained.... Unfortunately, that's how my mind works.