The break from the supposedly culturally-narrow religious bases of knowledge in favor of supposedly trans-cultural scientific bases of knowledge served as the self-justification of a particularly pernicious form of cultural imperialism.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the idea that scientific knowledge is universally superior to religious knowledge, suggesting this belief can lead to cultural domination.
Immanuel Wallerstein addresses the conflict between cultural and scientific understandings of knowledge, implying that the dismissal of religious perspectives in favor of scientific ones is not a neutral stance but a form of cultural imperialism. This viewpoint promotes the idea that Western scientific knowledge, often regarded as universal, can unjustly overshadow and undermine other cultural worldviews, leading to a one-dimensional understanding of human experience.
In practice
In a lecture discussing the impact of science on culture, this quote can emphasize the need for inclusivity in knowledge formation.
If we return to the two faces of individualism - individualism as the spur of energy, initiative, and imagination; and individualism as the limitless struggle of all against all - it can be seen how the two practices emerge from and limit the extend of the disequilibrating impact of the contradiction involved in the geocultural agenda.
Scientific culture created a framework within which individual mobility was possible without threatening hierarchical work-force allocation. On the contrary, meritocracy reinforced hierarchy. Finally, meritocracy as an operation and scientific culture as an ideology created veils that hindered perception of the underlying operations of historical capitalism.
This is a steady, ceaseless process, impossible to contain as long as the economy driven by the endless accumulation of capital. The system may prolong its life by slowing down some of the activities which are wearing it out, but death always looms somewhere on the horizon.
What is different in capitalist civilization has been two things. First, the process of meritocracy has been proclaimed as an official virtue instead of being merely a de facto reality. The culture has been different. And secondly, the percentage of the world's population for whom such ascent was possible has gone up. But even though it has grown up, meritocratic ascent remains very much the attribute of a minority.
Historical capitalism is a materialist civilization.
It is this third consequence that has been elaborated in greatest detail and has formed one of the most significant pillars of historical capitalism, institutional racism.
When a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its heart.
Guns go home with the soldiers, but landmines are designed to kill - mindlessly, out of control, for years.
The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave.
Never to wrong others takes one a long way towards peace of mind.
The body is a reservoir of all sorts of tensions and dark forces. And it's also the potential source of amazing energy. This thing wants to live. It is a powerful engine. The brain (is) a reservoir of images, dreams, fears, associations, language. And its potential we can't even begin to understand. Movement begins to negotiate the distance between the brain and the body and it can be surprising what we learn about each other.
A warrior has no confusion in his mind...This is true emptiness.
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