Sequelae of colonialism: the pathological obsession with being accepted by the West

With thanks to our dear friend, Quantum Bird

Note:  Quantum Bird unerringly puts his finger on the deeper malaise that develops as a result of colonization. 

We often remind our audience that colonization doesn’t happen on the ground. It can only be physically occupied. Colonization happens in the minds of the natives.

To cut to the chase, here’s an example of a colonized mind, of the “useful idiot” variety:

“The promises of the leaders of America and Europe to cease-fire in exchange for us not responding to the assassination of Haniyeh were pure lies” – Masoud Pezeshkian, Iranian President

The newly-elected Iranian president and his cabinet of pro-Western reformists — Mr. Mohammad Javad Zarif included — decided to ignore the Supreme Leader’s instructions to proceed with the retaliation for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, indefinitely postponing the Iranian response because the collective West had promised a ceasefire in Gaza. Haniyeh was the head of Hamas’ political bureau and its main negotiator. He was killed in a supposedly Israeli operation in Tehran, on July 31, just a few hours after attending the inauguration of Masoud Pezeshkian.

It matters little that since Haniyeh’s assassination, Israel has systematically increased the scale of its aggression against civilians from Gaza, Lebanon, and other countries in the region connected to the Axis of Resistance. It also matters little that Iranian inaction allowed Israel to muster the political, military, and moral strengths to brutally attack Lebanon, massacring hundreds of civilians, to assassinate many of the senior Hezbollah’s leadership, including Hassan Nasrallah himself.

Can you understand the severity of the pathology? Or the magnitude of the brain damage in the mind of the colonized?

Where was Pezeshkian during the negotiations and signing of the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) and its arbitrary and unilateral revocation by the US, followed by a brutal escalation of the sanctions regime, to destroy the Iranian economy? Or did he not know about the countless assassinations of scientists, politicians, and military commanders, as well as the successive attempts to trigger color revolutions in his own country? In the wider context, everyone has witnessed the collective West’s dishonest dealings with Russia in the Minsk Accords, with China in a series of other disputes, and the continued theft of Venezuelan economic resources. In 2024, one could list the examples of the collective West’s dishonesty ad infinitum.

The situation has become so sensitive that, to avoid further discrediting, the Iranian authorities have strongly condemned the attacks, but avoided promising revenge for the assassination of Nasrallah and Abbas Nilforoushan, the deputy commander of operations for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The truth is that while Iran is reluctant to act decisively to re-establish the equations of deterrence to avoid a direct confrontation with the US, the same US is creating the conditions to deprive Iran of its allies in the region. In other words, the reluctance to respond adequately to avoid war is, in fact, precipitating war.

As I write, popular protests calling for Pezeshkian’s resignation are growing, as is the agitation in parliament about the need to revise the nuclear weapons doctrine. Israel, on the other hand, seems to see a window of opportunity to decapitate the Iranian regime and its allies as well. In other words, the balance has been broken: while one side is prudently reluctant, the other is delirious in genocidal frenzy. There’s no way it can end well.

Portuguese version available on Saker Latinoamérica: https://sakerlatam.blog/sequelas-do-colonialismo-o-obsessao-patologica-de-ser-aceito-pelo-ocidente/