Re: Anti-Eurocentrism: Idealist Diversion from Anti-racism/anti-imperialism

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:34 12/04/00 -0500, Carrol wrote:
>     The ongoing critique in scholastic circles of "euro-centrism"
> more and more appears as a member of that large family of
> ideological persuasions generally called "post-modernism,"
> defined here as a purely academic compensation for the
> material defeats the movements of the '60s  Karl and Frederick
> described this sort of maneuver rather well in *The German
> Ideology*. If we can no longer (or so it seems) win real
> battles against racism and imperialism, we can invent
> specialized areas of scholastic dispute in which we can
> win brilliant battles against imaginary opponents.

A blunt and valuable challenge, even though I agree with most of those who
have contributed, in saying that Eurocentrism is an important concept.

Another angle I suggest, can come by comparing the concept with that of the
anthropic fallacy in cosmology.

- that our perceptions of history are limited and over-influenced by our
awareness of where we are now. We tend to forget the other possible and in
fact probable social formations.

It is an argument against a unilinear view of history and in favour of a
probabilistic one. This is still entirely compatible with the fundamental
approach of Marx and Engels.

Chris Burford

London