Wednesday 3 March 2010

Epistemological Castration

"An ugly, undesirable manifestation of a bloated, self-satisfied egomanical Western culture... Those missionaries. It’s ok to hate them you know; it’s not like hating race, gender or sexuality for example. Missionaries are, by default, pious, arrogant, narrowminded and self-righteous without a single exception. Those qualities are the prerequisites of missionaryhood; if you do not embody these adjectives, then you are not missionary (in effect, you must believe that your religion is the best, your culture is the superior, and your language is the greatest, and you must be willing to inflict this on innocent people who are generally quite fond of their own culture to begin with). This kind of mind is very similar to the kind of mind that starts wars and erases generations, and, due to the nature of religious groups, all members must share this attitude. In their case, the stereotype is absolute and, because ‘tolerance’ is largely based on the fact that stereotypes are not manifest of a group, I can say ‘I hate them’, and it is beyond any kind of moral, liberal, or philospohical reproach."
This is what to expect from other foreigners in Taiwan.

Update: linked up now - thanks to Linda Morgan for pointing out the missing link.

3 comments:

  1. I'd like to know more. Can you give us the link? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LOL! Well worth the read. She does like those noses at any rate, doesn't she?

    It's interesting to me that after declaring -

    "I can say ‘I hate them’, and it is beyond any kind of moral, liberal, or philospohical reproach."

    - she goes right ahead and reproaches herself for telling the guy off.

    Maybe she's finding all that stuff about the "ugly, undesirable manifestation of a bloated, self-satisfied egomanical Western culture" easier to parrot than it is to believe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is it a she? I couldn't tell one way or the other...

    But yes I think you have it about right Linda - easier to parrot than to believe. What's was Nietzsche's line again... opinions are like fish, it takes preparation patience and skill to catch one but most people are content with a poor collection of broken fossils... something like that.

    ReplyDelete

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