Large masses of people, greater in number and hopes than ever before, want to eat better and more frequently; large numbers also want to move, talk, sing, dress. If the old system cannot respond to those demands, the gigantic media-hastened images that provoke administered violence and rapid xenophobia will not serve either. They can be counted on to work for a moment, but then they lose their power. There are too many contradictions between reductive schemes and overwhelming impulses and drives. Edward Said, Culture and imperialism , 1994 ed. p. 399)
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51