Cultural Colonialism Persists

There was a time when colonialism pervaded every aspect of human life. Its victims were robbed not only of their natural resources, but their cultures were also degraded, denigrated and made to feel undeserving of the interest of the "oh-so-Christian" colonizers. A lot has happened over centuries for any moral or economic compensation to actually make a difference, for the abuse of the south by the north continues to this day. After building their wealth by pilfering all they could find from their victimized societies, including decent innocent men and women taken into slavery, the countries of the north built their industries that began polluting the waters, the air and the lands of the entire earth, leading to today's climatic catastrophes that punish the south to a far higher degree than they punish the north.

Given this asymmetrical history, one wonders why men and women of former colonies continue to be subservient to their former colonizers. Two cases in point:

I have had enough watching Queen Elizabeth's endless funeral processions and queues to look at a box inside of which is the decaying body of a woman, with all the paraphernalia of Stone Age vintage. Two weeks yet of endless coverage on every media portal, even in far away countries that have nothing to do with English tradition, and worse, for countries and peoples who were enslaved, occupied, repressed, denied, robbed of their dignity by the very English people who are burying their queen. 

Do people truly still believe that she is queen by the grace of God, like some Pharaoh several millennia ago? Did God himself descend and declare her sovereign queen? Or was it some unelected self-appointed so-called archbishop of Roman vintage crown the said queen? Hasn't humankind learned anything from our long history of mutual killings, abuse, exploitation, racism and self-serving receipt of divine favoritism and exclusivity? That people can still be drawn to such stupidity and subservience to what amounts to superstitions and wizardry is beyond belief. Whether she was a good person is not the point. 

Meanwhile, the Arab world - particularly the Gulf region - is being invaded and culturally colonized by  Hollywood. Most American television outlets have subsidiary Arabic channels like OSN where insidious propaganda is delivered into the brains of credulous nouveau-riche Arabs who are made to believe that whatever comes out of the United States is beyond question: violence, more violence, and even more violence is served uninterrupted into the living rooms of Arab families. A snapshot of a Saudi living room showing both the viewer and the screen will display an Arab woman with head and face coverings watching a Western superwoman decimating with her machine gun multitudes of enemies often portrayed as an inferior race. You will see American magic and wizardry and superheroes rectifying injustices before devout Muslims devouring American-made chips and sugary soft drinks. 

The submission of entire cultures to the "American way of life" is under question: cheap, mercantile, insidious, void of substance, illusory.... While the consequences have yet to take shape, this process of cultural colonialism is well under way. When you have to borrow someone else's values, you have to kill your own values first to make way. But when that someone else's values have no roots in your own culture, how sturdy is this forced acculturation construct? How long before someone notices that you are building new societies that have not designed the parameters of their own journey? 

May the woman Elizabeth rest in peace. But may Queen Elizabeth and all the medieval charlatanism that escorts the British (Oops.. should I just say English?) monarchy go to hell as far as I am concerned, for the blatant disregard for the historic cultural genocides committed by this cabal won't be forgotten any time soon.