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A discourse is set to be defined as a collection of believes and facts to communicate. It is similar to the known meaning of ‘ideology’. ‘The West’, serves as an unclear and unobvious term that has been used since ages to distinct between the modernized sight of the world and the ‘Rest’. ‘West’ refers to the modern circumstances created by the western side of the world.
The traditions, customs, rituals, all combined together form the Western culture that is being promoted in full swing in the whole world. The concrete countries of the western culture include America, Australia, Switzerland, Korea, etc. These countries are not only geographically western but, their systematic traditions and culture are modernized very highly.
In the last few decades, when the British emperor was in charge, people used to live in communal societies. They had communities that were unified. They had specific sorts of traditional values, rituals, that were followed by every individual of that community. In the present world, West is rising to pre-eminence and its influence in forming the frame of the world can be clearly seen.
This rise is due to the deep dark history of imperialism and slavery. A root of nearly every modern problem is the good great science technology, that serves as a fundamental product of imperialism. This is way too true that western culture is being used as a discourse to manipulate the customs of a different region as developed by different societies.
There has been a crucial growth to West’s Power in last few decades because of their competition within the European States and colonies, scientific revolution during the era of 16th and 17th centuries, the laws and rules of govt. representation, the modern medicine, 2 industrial revolutions in the 17th and 18th centuries, and last but not the least, the moral working principles and ethics.
The start of Western culture as a discourse is the result of the great exploration period by the Europe, colonization, capitalism emerging as a global market, economic dependency of the world on the Western markets. All this led to the growth of internal and external cohesion of the West, emerging in the rest of the world.
West is seen as an ambiguous discourse, since, it is the combination of the contributions of several people’s opinions, facts, and figures. West is the produced practice and activity due to the implication of one state to another that was made in the favor of West. Western discourse is not anyhow an isolated system, it is an open system, where exaggeration, degradation, improvement, and exploitation takes place. It is not necessary that this discourse contains similar information or bullets, but it contains different views as well that collide with each other in the plot. West has been considered as a reference to the rest world since imperialism took place.
Now, the people compare the rest with the western culture and activities. If one person is following the Western practices, he or she is said to be internally as well as externally modern. Internally modern refers to the brought up in the thinking of a person from orthodox to paradox whereas, externally modern refers to the groomed personality of an individual according to the modern time period or the customs set by West.
During the British colonialism, the white people used to compare the Asians, or the black men with the barbarians, gorillas, apes, and animals. As a discourse, common perceptions and opinions were made by a large number of people regarding the orient i.e. the rest right now. They used the idealized theory to compare the Asian individuals. The western people had some exotic, curious and emetic views for them.
There are several things, that led to the rise of these misconceptions, they include classical knowledge, where perceptions are made through oriental literature and dialogues, the second is religious and biblical sources, where despite geographical subjectivity, western and eastern are compared in light of their holy perspective. The third is mythology, they are corroborated fantastic ideas and the last is traveler’s tales.
Traveller Tales are the stories that are transferred to the common men by the people who visit different areas of the Rest world. They centrally exaggerate their opinions and analysis along with the happenings. Thus, they manipulate the mind and this leads to the construction of Western discourse. Idealization is the main thumb rule of creating a discourse or discursive analysis.
Considering the western discourse, conflation of images and retouching the images have been 3 the most popular way of creating stereotypes but this is a false deed because people in the rest world are of different human nature and behavior. A single bad experience cannot make everyone a bad person, similarly, a single good experience cannot make everyone a good person. The western people have different sorts of imageries in their minds and brains. They have visualized images that stop them from looking the good and wise sight of the rest of the world. This makes them think as they are more superior than the rest.
However, this use of imageries as rhetorical devices is discourse is completely worse. Western society’s contribution to the idea of independence is enlightened. The western society itself believes that the idea of independence truly exists in them. Their idealized objectivity forces them to think that no one in the rest of the world is independent, the rest of the societies have people depending on one another.
They cannot pursue their ideas until they are approved by the other men of the society. This includes promotion of one’s ideas, wills. Whereas, the western society is independent of others. The people of that society do whatever they think is good and beneficial for them. They do not think of other people that might get affected by their actions. Hence, the western society thinks that their way of observing things and judgment is universal.
A western discourse has been created as people have idealized the worst side of the rest world people. This discourse involves that the rest of people are not more educated. They have less knowledge and are quiet, not interested in the happenings of their surroundings. They are not assertive and have lack of leadership qualities. They have limited facial expression and vulnerability. Lack of confidence and verbal issues are found in the rest of the world. They feel exploitable as if they can adjust in every situation and do not complain. They are neither social nor prideful. Lack of cooperation is seen in the rest individuals.
Less leadership, authoritative qualities are found. The rest of the people are not considered credible or knowledgeable. According to the most of the western part, the rest of the world lacks in understanding or speaking English. This is a common myth among them. All these facts are the part of the western discourse that is formed by the combination and generalization of all the sources that involve, critical knowledge, religious and biblical resources, myths and traveler’s tales.
There are also more sources than these but the mentioned ones are the most common sources of information. One of the most highlighted facts against the rest world is the “gender discrimination”. The western part of the world has this generalized information in their minds that gender discrimination is on fleek in the rest of the world. Females are treated as slaves and are 4 not given equal rights.
This is the false considerable fact that the western people have built up in their minds. The west world thinks that the people of the rest world, especially Asians, are keen on their parental expectations, lack affirmation but strong criticism, and painful family history. The west considers this as a challenge that is faced by every person in the rest world, but it is not like that.
The western mindset is manipulated with such irrespective and irrelevant ideas that enable them to think in such a way. The western academy now thinks that they have no comparison with the rest of the world since they have qualitative differences. During the 18th and 19th centuries before the colonialism in the middle east countries, the eastern societies had the absence of government, the absence of private properties and had a culture of gift exchange. They had no weaponry because they lived in a peaceful environment where no crimes took place.
People owned a land as a community and they worked for the betterment and safety of the other people of their society. In that unified society, everyone had a heritor share since it was inherited from their ancestors. The natives did not have proper means of economic marketing so they preferred the gift exchange system although it was not compulsory for anyone to present someone a gift to someone who did something good for that person, it was considered as a custom of that peaceful society. The people did not charge money for their services. Hence, this is considered orthodox according to the West. Why? Because of the manipulated Western constructed discourse.
A frame of structure and modes can now easily be sketched as the operation of the Western discourse i.e. the representative system of the world. Idealization, projection through imageries, the tendency of imposition, and perceptions are the discursive strategies that have promoted to the construction of this “Western Discourse System”.
This discourse system involves the different sciences of the men through which the idea of “modernity” got framed. This formation of western discourse is a global process that is now being implemented in a large part of the world as if it is universal. This discourse has some crucial internal and external features, considered as a reference of comparison.
The western ideological dimensions could be seen politically, economically and socially expanding in the rest of the world, overlapping the eastern identity. Moreover, it could be seen that the discourse of “the West and the Rest” is the only major discourse that is alive and an increment is seen day by day in this state towards the rest, leaving issues as an open question at this stage for the world.
