The Mainstream Western Worldview Pretends The Global South Does Not Exist
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
Mainstream western politics and culture pretend the rest of the world does not exist. The mainstream western worldview shrinks the earth down to US-aligned countries and acts as though the billions of people who live in the global south do not share a planet with us.
You really see this illustrated in US presidential election season, when debates will feature five or six minutes on “foreign policy” with the remaining two hours dedicated to “domestic policy” and culture war wedge issues despite the the White House’s relationship with foreign countries having orders of magnitude more significant real-world consequences. Americans discuss election results as though the whole thing revolves around them and their feelings and how much more convenient or inconvenient the next president might make their lives, while Europeans discuss what the results might mean for NATO expenses and trade agreements. The fact that the next US president will be committing genocide, starving people with economic sanctions and increasing Washington’s stranglehold on earth’s population by any amount of violence and tyranny necessary barely ever enters into the conversation.
Whenever you hear western officials talking about how “the international community” views a particular issue, they’re almost always talking about the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and maybe a few US-aligned Asian countries like Japan and South Korea — while pretending the rest of the world just isn’t there.
You see it in politics, but you see it throughout our culture too. In our movies, our shows, our conversations, our thoughts. We don’t really think about all the exploitative imperialist extraction of resources and labor that makes our lifestyles possible, even though it directly affects damn near every waking moment of our lives. You wouldn’t be reading this sentence right now had not this exact dynamic led to a highly complex electronic device making its way into your field of vision.
We just conduct ourselves from moment to moment like this relationship isn’t happening. It’s as though we’re all walking around with living people strapped to our feet like slippers, but we’re just laughing and talking about the weather and celebrities and how we’re feeling about this and that without ever acknowledging the existence of the human beings we’re standing on top of.
The global south is omitted from our thinking and our conversations in this way all the time, leaving us in this fractured, redacted mental universe where we pretend we’re the only people living in this rapidly shrinking world. Our lives are no less significant or valuable than those of people in Africa or Asia, but we live as though they don’t exist, even when their labor may affect our moment to moment reality far more than the white-skinned person we’re paying attention to in this instant.
This is going to have to change if we’re to become a conscious species and create a healthy world together. Our perception of the world is going to have to reflect the actual world, not just the small cloistered segment which exists within the confines of western civilization. We’re going to have to start thinking about humanity as a whole and stop living the lie that we are not intimately interconnected with the lives on every populated continent.
Until we open up our worldview and begin taking into account the needs and struggles of our fellow human beings around the world, it will be like we’re at a dinner party that’s being waited on by slaves. We’re all looking at each other and talking about our lives and our families as the slaves clear our plates and refill our drinks, never acknowledging them or discussing the fact that they’re being kept as material property and forced to do what they’re doing to avoid punishment and torture. Until we demand their freedom and invite them to come and dine with us, we’re going to be in a highly dysfunctional and abusive relationship with them, and nothing will ever feel quite right — because it won’t be.
______________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. If you’d prefer to listen to audio of these articles, you can subscribe to them on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or YouTube. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
Which is why, when asked about the genocide in Gaza, Kamala can say, "yeah that sucks but don't you want a lower grocery bill?" and most Democrats feel no shame whatsoever. It's appalling.
Stereotypically, the US views many countries as beneath us as you stated. Africa? Maybe commercials about starving kids, sending them food. There are over a billion people there who live in many countries. Some forced labor in diamond mines among many other things. Occassionally South Africa gets recognition. India is known as an outsourcing of cheap labor, again over a billion people there. India is not an enemy of the state, but outside memes, the country doesn't come up much, as a former colony or imperialist hold of England, it really isn't considered. Ghandi may come to mind from history books. China is considered an enemy of the state but we do so much business with them, it should be a lie...another country with more than a billion people, doing hard labor that really do feel like slaves serving us...North Korea is considered an enemy of the state Kim is regarded as a guy whose hobby involves launching nuclear rockets. Occasionally he is the big bad guy, then he is off the radar. Putin is the biggest villians in the eyes of most in the US. Russia needs no introduction...The Middle Eastern countries outside Saudi Arabia and Israel are basically considered enemies or largely unknown. Mexico is considered...I don't know, like some hot button issue due to immigration. South America is generally ignored save for Brazil and Columbia to most people, some inferences of gangs in South America, but not a place that gets talked about, kind of your point.
Why? It is easier to control people mentally when you limit their world view. Most people in the United States do not pay attention to all the other countries, you know, like the ones you often write about because as you said, the US deliberately limits its discussion on foreign policy...Gaza is an example. All those countries we bomb? Hard to get people's consent if you tell them they are just ordinary people like them living their life.