Discourses Of Livy

Introduction
“Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.” Machiavelli’s quote from Discourses of Livy manages to succinctly describe our current social and political world. Founded on colonialization and violence, the term ‘the west’ promotes the idea of certain values and concepts which make it superior to ‘the east’. I argue that the concept us ‘us versus them’, particularly when linked with the Western Ideology, justifies violence in social, economic and physical terms. This ideology perpetuates the idea that there are inherent, distinct characteristics which separate members of each race, known as race thinking. Further, it allows powerful nation-states to

advance their own goals
First, I will provide a background on the ‘west’. This will focus on the initial colonialization by countries like Britain, France and the United States of America*, and the violence that the native people experienced due to race think, including cultural genocide, displacement and forced assimilation. Furthermore, these events still influence how we view members of the colonized countries, leading to a distinct grouping of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Next, an examination of how colonizing powers’ relationships with countries overseas, with a particular emphasis on countries in the Middle East that have been immediately impacted by America. Finally, I will analyze the ongoing War on Terror. The international war, officially initiated by the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11, was fueled by the concepts of America hegemony and pre-emptive measures against threats to America.

The West and the Rest
When the term the “West” is referenced, certain images or ideas arise – of a society which is socially, politically, economically and culturally developed. The Western Ideology, therefore, can be described as democratic, liberal, capitalistic, and modern. At the heart of this concept is America, a country hegemonic in nature. Other countries include France, Great Britain, and Canada.
The concept of the West is problematic for a number of reasons, mainly because of the clear divide that it creates. As Stuart Hall explains, “it allows us to characterize and classify societies into different categories – i.e. “western,” [and] “non-western.” … it provides criteria of evaluation against which other societies are ranked and around which powerful positive and negative feelings cluster.” If Western countries are developed and modern then, by contrast, countries which are not considered to be a part of the western sphere are backwards and primitive. By providing a way to compare societies based on an inherently biased, countries like America are not only deemed more powerful – they become more powerful.
Unfortunately, this perceived divide allows for the generalization of many different, multi-faceted cultures into a single, unifying ‘other’. The effects of this thinking – an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality – creates disassociation and apathy among Western citizens, who view countries which are not similar to them as being very different and wrong. Moreover, this generalization incorporates stereotypes about people of other cultures that are not necessarily true, or reveal a biased view that favours the West.
Race thinking is centered around the idea that an entire race shares the same or similar characteristics, which are rooted in their genes. A less nocuous but still harmful example of race thinking would be the idea that all Asians, no matter their culture, country of origin or background, are good at math. Because the stereotype has been so promoted and strengthened by the media, it has become a prevailing – and false – inherent trait of Asians.
These stereotypes are dangerous because it leads to prejudice and racism. Our current day media focuses on a different type of stereotyping: Orientalism, or the representation of the Eastern culture through stereotypical images, ideas and traits.
Edward Said comments on the Orientalist attitudes in his book Orientalism: “In the films and television the Arab is associated either with lechery or bloodthirsty dishonesty. He appears … essentially sadistic, treacherous, low … these are some of the traditional Arab roles in the cinema. In newsreels or photos, the Arab is always shown in large numbers. No individuality, no personal characteristics or experiences.”
Take for, example, the Indiana Jones movie franchise. The movie The Temple of Doom particularly reinforces the idea of the exotic Orient. All the protagonists in the franchise are carefully constructed to reflect the American values and ideals and the triumph of an all American hero, the ‘good’ guy, further solidifies his victory against evil. One scene depicted the three main characters participating in a traditional banquet that their hosts – of a Middle Eastern culture – had prepared for them. The female protagonist showed particular disgust in the dishes served to them, despite the obvious care and time that had gone into creating them. At last, when presented with a dessert dish of monkey brain ( an ancient Chinese delicacy ) she faints. While the scene may have been intended to be humorous, it reinforces the idea of Eastern strangeness; the blatant contrast between the two different cultures serves as another suggestion that the East is still primitive and backwards.
An issue arises from these stereotypical ideas when people begin to internalize the messages. The concept of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ has been used throughout history by governments to get away with acts of violence that would otherwise spark a national outcry. The more distance put between the dominant class or race and the Other, the less sense of urgency or empathy that is felt towards them.
Our Canadian government thought that the Native people in Canada were uncivilized, uneducated and pagan.

By enforcing this idea upon Canadian citizens, and convincing them that they were doing their humanitarian duty by converting them to the proper, Christian lifestyle, the government was able to put the Aboriginals in deplorable reservations and commit cultural genocide in the name of good. Many terrible acts of violence, including physical, sexual and emotional abuse, were inflicted upon the children that were ripped away from their families and forced to assimilate into a world which they had no experience in. The effects of those actions still resonate in our society today, although our government is hesitant to take responsibility for

them.
There are many examples in which people allowed or even encouraged the mistreatment of those who were considered different or uncultured: the slavery of black people, the Rwandan genocide, the concentration camps during World War Two. Globalization has allowed race thinking to become an international problem, especially as the disparity between first world and third world countries grows.
The West Overseas
The effects of colonization still lingers in today’s society. Colonization is an inherently violent process which creates marks that reside deeper than physical changes. Michael Rynkiewich describes the changes as, “what the colonials needed was to colonize not just the land and the bodies, but the minds of the people. That is, colonizers succeeded if they convince the colonized to accept the worldview, values, motives, goals and outcomes that they desire. One step in the process is to teach local people to suspect, resist and reject their own”. Many countries that were colonized had their culture and values erased. Leadership organizations that had existed and worked for hundreds of years were upturned and traditions that were considered to be barbaric or heathen were erased. Colonizing governments imposed their will and power onto the natives through violence and created problems which persisted even when they withdrew from the country. Nowadays, countries are forbidden from outright invading other countries, and can no longer exercise outright power or domination against the native people. This, however, does not prevent Western governments from interfering in international politics, from endorsing one country over another or providing armaments and military supplies. One of the most common ways of interference is the militarization of a country.
The continued militarization of countries is neocolonialism, in which Western governments lend their support to certain countries which they favour in order to gain advantage or allies, or to influence the politics of a country to ensure that the next leader will be someone who has similar ideals or values as the Western one. Israel, who is at a constant state of war with Palestine, “has been the largest annual recipient of direct U.S economic and military assistance since 1976 and the largest total recipient since World War II. Total direct U.S aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion in 2003 dollars” To put it in another way, The United States provides Israel with $10.2 million in military equipment every day. The money, which could have gone into rebuilding infrastructure, providing education or clean water for citizens, is instead poured into maintaining border checkpoints and fueling the continued war with their neighboring country.
Both the United States and Israel is engaged in race thinking: one IDF prosecutor told nine British lawyers that “a Palestine child is a potential terrorist”.

As written by Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, “administrative controls shape the Palestinian community and its unborn and newborn children as terrorists. This nomenclature and its political and demographic implications justify monitoring the movement of Palestinians” Israel maintains heavy security borders and checkpoints which regularly discriminates against pregnant Palestine woman trying to get into the country to give birth in an Israel hospital, which would make their child a citizen. The lengths that they go through to ensure that their children would be recognized by the Israel government is described in a testimony from Ghaida, a Palestine woman who gave birth to her child in Israel: “Because I was pregnant, I felt that the soldiers on the checkpoints wanted to humiliate and torture me more…they made me pass through an X-ray. They then decided I couldn’t cross the checkpoint because my passing permit was not “an original” … They delayed me and treated me like a criminal; they prevented me from reaching the hospital when I was in dire need to just see a doctor and make sure I was not losing my son”

.
The imagined line that separates a child from a potential terrorist has solidified into borders and security checks, all designed to prevent a threat before one is created. This distinction creates devastating problems and struggles of those who are viewed as the Other – suffering that has become implanted in the basic structures of our Western society.