Frantz Fanon's from the wretched of the Earth

Frantz Fanon argues national consciousness degenerates in to petty identity politics in newly independent underdeveloped countries when the national middle class, the group of natives educated by the colonial power to staff the colonial economy, seeks its own benefit and fails to generate new resources, plunging the masses into ethnic and religious discord. Fanon says the middle class clamors to fill the privileged posts of the occupying colonial power after independence not to lead the nation into development, but to secure profits and government concessions and be bosses (Fanon: 12). Fanon says this is detrimental for a young nation because the national bourgeoisie of these newly independent under developed countries cannot be compared to the European bourgeoisie who developed their nations.

The national middle class are only intellectuals and small business owners. Fanon argues the national middle class are not industrialists, inventors, engineers, scientist and financiers capable of developing, producing and financing. He says they are totally unfit to man the government because they have no technical skill or investment capital like the bourgeoisie from the mother country. The national middle class want nationalization of the economy not because they despise private enterprise, but because they want to secure the backing of the state for their profits. They support the existing agricultural economy, a remnant of the colonial era, because the landed elite do not care about modernization (Fanon: 14).

They only want cheap labor for their estates. Fanon further states that the national bourgeoisie are simply managers of the former colony. The only industry is tourism for the wealthy European bourgeoisie. Fanon argues that since the national bourgeoisie are unable to make new resources, the competition among the masses for few resources destroys the national consciousness of the nation and degenerates into petty ...