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It's not as interesting as all that.
He spoke at my university, DePaul University, circa '93 - '94. He was supposedly speaking about multi-culturalism, but it was basically an all out attack on all things European decended (which, as I looked at him, I thought included him also--especially since most Indians these days are mixed). He was talking about how "advanced" Indian societies were Aztec surgery and all that, and basically saying how there was nothing of value in European culture. Rather than a multi-centric view of history, the only centers of value were the non-European ones.
So I said, what about the fact that despite the dominent theme in European history, there has always been resistence to that theme within European culture itself. I wasn't merely refering to Marxism, but the whole culture of resistence, from Diggers to Anabaptists, from Sparticus to Bartolomeo de las Casas, on down. After all, it's not like like were "Europeans" marched in lock step throughout history. I also mentioned the fact that many of the victims of Europe were other Europeans.
He just got red in the face and laid into me verbally, basially calling me (in a very round about way) scum and an enemy of the people. I was like, "what the f*ck," but I decided not to say anything about the fact that he was wearing obviously very expensive glasses (a product of that worthless European technology), making a living off of a European institution (the university), etc.
After that, I sorta wrote him off, except for his very fine research on government repression in the U.S.
He spoke at my university, DePaul University, circa '93 - '94. He was supposedly speaking about multi-culturalism, but it was basically an all out attack on all things European decended (which, as I looked at him, I thought included him also--especially since most Indians these days are mixed). He was talking about how "advanced" Indian societies were Aztec surgery and all that, and basically saying how there was nothing of value in European culture. Rather than a multi-centric view of history, the only centers of value were the non-European ones.
So I said, what about the fact that despite the dominent theme in European history, there has always been resistence to that theme within European culture itself. I wasn't merely refering to Marxism, but the whole culture of resistence, from Diggers to Anabaptists, from Sparticus to Bartolomeo de las Casas, on down. After all, it's not like like were "Europeans" marched in lock step throughout history. I also mentioned the fact that many of the victims of Europe were other Europeans.
He just got red in the face and laid into me verbally, basially calling me (in a very round about way) scum and an enemy of the people. I was like, "what the f*ck," but I decided not to say anything about the fact that he was wearing obviously very expensive glasses (a product of that worthless European technology), making a living off of a European institution (the university), etc.
After that, I sorta wrote him off, except for his very fine research on government repression in the U.S.
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