THE TWO MODELS OF MODERN HISTORY

The two paradigms, or "frameworks", of how to understand the history of the 20th century are briefly outlined here.

In the "Cold War" -- or, the "Imperialist" -- Framework of how to understand, or to make sense of, modern history, the Western Democracies / Imperialists are the "good guys." The "bad guys" are the Communist countries and the Communist movement, and the forces of National Liberation against Imperialism.

In the "Anti-Imperialist" Framework, the Western Imperialists (only ironically referred to as "democracies," since they never really stood for any real democracy) are the "bad guys", and the Communists and Communist Movement, along with others who struggled against imperialism, are the "good guys."

There are other important differences among these "frameworks" or "paradigms" as well. We will discuss some of them in class.

What seems most important:

• we in the "West", or the traditional Imperialist countries, are taught that there is only one way to understand the world -- the "Cold War", or "Imperialist", paradigm. The "Anti-Imperialist" paradigm is either not taught at all (usually), or taught in a seriously distorted manner, as a "Leftist" or "pro-Communist" falsehood.
• the "Anti-Imperialist" paradigm is familiar to most of the world's population. They do not see the "Cold War" and the role of the Western 'democracies' in the same self-congratulating way in which we are taught to.
• the evaluations are reversed in these two paradigms. If you accept the "Cold War", or "Imperialist", way of understanding the world, it follows automatically that the West is basically "good." If you accept the "Anti-Imperialist" paradigm, it follows that the West is basically "bad" -- or, at least, that the rulers of the Imperialist countries, those who really benefitted from Imperialism, are basically "bad."
• the role of the Communist movement in this century is seen completely differently. The Communist movement was the strongest international movement against imperialism.

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  http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furr/wl/paradigms.html | Email Me | last modified November 8 2017