Hello all! I've picked out two rather distinctive (seemingly disjunct) points from the essays, and if you think (I hope not!) my discussion is rather flippant, unthinking and incoherent, just treat it as if it were a stream of consciousness. :)
What caught my attention in Levine's essay was her conclusion: that "shifts such as these are useful reminders of the way in which empire had different meanings in different eras..." (122). It made me think: if Singapore were part of an empire in this (post)modern age, what meaning would it undertake? My thoughts did not concretize till I read Auerbach's "The Brown Stocking"; since in that reading, there was a large focus on "multipersonal subjectivism", perception and impression, for e.g. "what people think about [Mrs Ramsay] and the impression she makes" (133) in the modern(ist) era.
Therefore, I came up with the conclusion (or rather, hypothetical thinking) that if a form of government today, or 'the empire in this present era' wants to remain in power, it should not fail to realize that there is an increasing need to sustain their power through ideology and the indoctrination of certain values. This is because violence alone (has never and) will no longer suffice, as we have seen from the Levine article -- how policing in the 19th century has begun to make "colonial resentment [...] strong" (117).
Therefore, if you take a random example, say the Singapore society or any society for that matter, it really does not matter much if the government makes blunders as long as the citizens perceive that they are safe, secure and happy. (Sorry! I can't back this up with an example here lest I offend some people in the community!) It is really easy to blur the division between reality and the representation of material happiness, which I would argue comes in the (objective) form of (the possession of) money especially if certain ideologies are at work. This blurring, I would argue, works in favour of the government, especially when facing a crisis.
So maybe I would like to pose a question to all of you: what do you think is the significance of ideology if an empire exists today?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Check
Very interesting and spirited but the final question was a little unclear: "So maybe I would like to pose a question to all of you: what do you think is the significance of ideology if an empire exists today?" What do you mean by this?
Post a Comment