The French playwright, poet and essayist Aimé Césaire certainly had a great sense on the state of the world. And was he ahead of his time!

Date:   5/5/2006 11:25:50 AM ( 18 y ago)

We think we are in a newly-created time, one that is far removed from that period experienced by our grandparents in the 1940’s, perhaps our great-grandparents in the 1910’s, and our great-great grandparents of the late 1800’s.  For that matter, we think we are in a time period of war and travesty that is unlike that of any other in history.

Maybe not.  Here’s something from a magical man, a French writer, who happened to inspire a few people with these words.  Here’s from the book, Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire:

I make no secret of my opinion that at the present time the barbarism of Western Europe has reached an incredibly high level, being only surpassed—far surpassed, it is true—by the barbarism of the United States.

And I am not talking about Hitler, or the prison guard, or the adventurer, but about the “decent fellow” across the way; not about the member of the SS, or the gangster, but about the respectable bourgeois…

We’ve made progress:  today it is the possessor of the “Christian virtues” who intrigues—with no small success—for the honor of administering overseas territories according to the methods of forgers and torturers.

A sign that cruelty, mendacity, baseness, and corruption have sunk deep into the soul of the European bourgeoisie.  (pp. 47-48) 

Is he talking about present day America?  Folks, this guy wrote this in 1955!  He is so right on to today’s time and space.

It was the Surrealist painter André Breton who helped champion the writings of Césaire.  This guy is magical, isn’t he?  See if this doesn’t cause a few tiny hairs to gasp for air there on the back of your neck:

One cannot say that the petty bourgeois has never read anything.  On the contrary, he has read everything, devoured everything.  Only, his brain functions after the fashion of certain elementary types of digestive systems.  It filters.  And the filters lets through only what can nourish the thick skin of the bourgeois’s clear conscience.  (p. 52) 

Dare anyone upset the applecart, but our friend Mr. Césaire seemed to pull some right-on punches in 1955.  Perhaps his saving grace came in being a Frenchman whose works were rarely translated into English.  New York University professor Robin D. G. Kelley writes that Discourse on Colonialism “might be best described a declaration of war…I would almost call it a ‘third world manifesto.’”

We can’t help but think of ourselves as being multidimensional beings, filled with the energy of the future bringing us in to unbelievable possibilities that are screaming at us for renewal; yet, we are indeed still working within the confines of a logic and mindset that are certainly not ancient—if they were ancient, we’d have them overturned by now.  I’d say they are devastatingly, painfully outmoded, for lack of a more succinct terminology—ways of living and ways of understanding ourselves that do not serve each of us well in this day and age of “consciousness expansion.”

We are, indeed, raising our levels of consciousness on a mass scale, and individually, too; yet, until we each experience the kind of inner revolution that is required of us, we as nations and as groups of individuals will continue to be pummeled by our own self-chosen political machines and armies of deceit, manipulation, and strong-armed leadership.  Perhaps when we have each joined together to create a “New World Manifesto” will we be able to greet these new energies flooding our world with the respect they demand of us.

And so it is.

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