This week on our global programm on Radio evolve Steve Brett:
For the past 300 years or more, the West has become used to assuming that our European and American way of seeing the world is the most progressive, most enlightened, and most objective way to see our global reality. In fact, the Western perspective was not “merely” a perspective but was considered to be objective reality. Western science and our understanding of human rights and democracy are great achievements of what we call the Enlightenment. But when one makes these superior assumptions, then one does not really hear and see anyone else anymore. One starts to become blind to the multitude of the human experience. In a sense, as a culture, we become autistic, incapable of real relationship and repetitively reinforcing a narrow, materialistic world.
Steve Brett lived not only as a British citizen for many years in India, in his academic research in South Asian Studies, he is focusing on the impact of British colonialism on India. Together with his partner, Mary Adams, he created the 3rd Space initiative. Through their website, they are initiating a dialogue between the civilizations, a dialogue that allows us in the West to become aware of the shadows of our dominant and dominating perspective and addresses the specific autism that blinds us to truly meeting others and the world. In this week’s Radio evolve, Thomas Steininger speaks with Steve Brett how to end the autism of the West.