As a result of the history of colonialism and the structures of imperialist exploitation, an “imperial mode of living” developed in the parasite states. As Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen have explained, people in the Global North are born and socialized into this way of life. Their actions and choices are not just made under conditions of their own choosing but also under conditions inherited from the past. The imperial mode of living is normalized in daily acts of production and consumption, so that its violent character and consequences are kept at a distance from those who benefit from it. It is not only the consumption of cheap consumer goods and food; the infrastructure underlying everyday life, in areas such as transport, electricity, heating, and telecommunications, relies heavily on material flows from abroad. People in the Global North draw on these flows, not just because they consider them to be essential to a good life, but because they are dependent on them.

— Riding the Wave by Torkil Lauesen (Page 166)