ABSTRACT
The ‘West’ constructs itself, in part, through the discipline of political economy. Political economy, as theory and practice, depends on a utopian self-idealization of theWest as wealthy, modern, and civilized that splits it from others, who are poor, backward, and savage. One effect of this split between theWest and its others is to hide troubling questions about wealth, modernity, and civilization: is wealth for some bought at the cost of impoverishing others? What benefits of wealth might justify such immiseration? Do savage cultures contain values, critiques, and ways of life that the West still needs?
