Our age of decolonization is the obverse of the Age of Conquest, with the latter signaling the birth of modern Western civilization and the former signaling its death (by suicide).
Ironically (and hilariously) even though the New World was conquered in the name of Christ, our modern progressive clerisy is somehow both secular and materialist yet also hyper-Christian (much more Christian than any conquistador) and they deeply believe that "So the last will be first, and the first will be last" and "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female for ye are all one..." (But not "in Christ Jesus" instead in "universal human rights.")
It really pains them to witness the sufferings of the stigmatized Other, and like all good Protestants (whether they know it or not) they feel great shame and guilt knowing they have much while others have little (especially the great mark of Satan of our age: privilege) and their hearts are on fire with perfectionist zeal—they will usher in a great Kingdom of Justice and Equality on behalf of the downtrodden, even if it requires the dismantling of our societies. They will preach to their flock the entire litany of the sins of our ancestors—they built the modern world but forgot to ask for consent!—and will demand any and all reparations: land acknowlegments, replacing science with "indigenous ways of knowing", the repatriation of every artefact, the creation of a reverse hierarchy where the European man now wears a permanent hairshirt and dedicates his life to atonement and the rectification of historical injustice.
Modern Westerner liberals have been born with too much, the burden of guilt is too heavy for them, everywhere they go they feel the evil eyes of the Wretched of the Earth, always judging and denouncing. They know they're too weak to uphold the burdens of civilization—it requires too much responsibility, it might involve violence, it might damage the self-esteem of the subaltern—thus they want to give it all back in a spasm of suicidal atonement. And the Left professoriate will lead the way, as they have a great track record when it comes to engineering equality: every society where they've had power got to experience an equal amount of murder and misery.
Ours is the Age of White Guilt, which is why it seems like all our countries and institutions are run by its enemies and which is why our discourse is dominated by moral entrepreneurs and other narcissists. Virtue has never come so cheap and penitence has never been so lucrative!
I agree with much of this but i regard their guilt as almost entirely performative/self interested in that they use it to gain jobs and status yet make no real sacrifice eg going to Palestine to administer aid or housing migrants or gifting their wealth to the worlds poor
"their guilt as almost entirely performative/self interested"
of course!
But if all incentives move in the same direction—in this case the decolonization craze and the wholesale adoption of Social Justice morality—most ambitious people will go along to get along and then there's the True Believers and other opportunists who see this ideology as a ticket to social and career advancement.
The world's poor or the Palestinians are simply props in this Western psychodrama.
In some cases/ times it should certainly have been obvious that plundering a given society removed their capability to supply future plunder, thus providing only a short term gain. But once the conquering group was large or ferocious enough to recognize the (supposed) merit of enslaving the remaining captives (and accept the evil thereof), then resources could be replenished or excavated more deeply, etc.
Still, Buckminster Fuller referred to the use of energy as providing "energy slaves" instead of people slaves. I sometimes think that adding "slaves" was an inappropriate phrasing, compared to say "workers", "assistants", maybe even "servants".
I suppose even agnostics/ atheists can be so immersed in the Judeo-Christian cultural "invention" of assessing all people as having equal dignity, rights, justice, etc., that I cannot really imagine having an outlook that claimed there was merit in enslaving people or using slaves. Since we did not even have servants in our middle-class upbringing, I find the idea of employing people to do that sort of house, yard, or related work, as uncomfortable - and easier to do the work myself than arrange for and then supervise such "help". But as we age, the wisdom or necessity of employing others for such chores (perhaps especially as cooks or housekeepers) may become stronger (and easier to justify with resources from long term investments).
History is where you find it. About those introduced diseases: My great grandfather is buried in a Charleston South Carolina cemetery opened in 1854, by a Lutheran church, because the then available cemetery space had been filled with German immigrants who died from outbreaks of Yellow Fever.
I am not quite sure of the family history that far back, but it sounds like I should appreciate that my German ancestors probably settled in the Illinois and Missouri areas, plus one of four grandparents immigrated in 1906 and became a naturalized citizen. The other 3 were native born around the same time (`1890?).
You’re so right! I’m reading Xenophon’s great book “Anabasis” and the fundamental way the Persian Cyrus motivated his troops was to promise them lots of plunder if they won.
Mate you just about covered every angle of why the north did not get rich by plundering the south. Do the same now, with a future focus.where are we going. Will we have a harem state run by fellows who have accumulated enough cash to access unlimited carnel joys and let the eunochs run the show by giving them status.
If plunder were the basis of societal wealth, Afghanistan would be one of the richest countries in the world, after their many invasions and plunderings of India.
Perhaps Alexander provided some education or guidance in just how to do that?
Did he just go off and do what he was good at, regardless of any philosophical guidance that might have been imparted by Aristotle to question the longer-term value of such a policy? I am not really familiar with the Aristotle oeuvre in detail - just the ride-by exposure - so maybe he was not particularly offended by the concept of slave classes??
Aristotle held there were natural slaves. Any universalist morality is going to have a problem with slavery. It either turns against slavery or argues some group is only fit to be slaves.
The Romans, who were not moral universalists, thought this was all Greek nonsense. Slaves were just losers. Freed slaves who became citizens became winners. End of story.
The exclusion of right wing thinking from academe is a serious and at that an increasingly serious problem. When groupthink dominates and right-think (ie left think!) signalling becomes compulsory, when marking is biased to left wing tropes, when conformity to the paradigm is compulsory for advancement, genuine enquiry and any interest in what actually works vs what is seen to be progressive dies. And we wonder why our societies are starting to decline. Pure decadence.
Have you thought about using Mancur Olson’s “distributional coalitions” to explain the persistence of Global South poverty? The recent research in economics on the importance of strong institutions being needed as a necessary ingredient for prosperity doesn't focus on the fact that Mancur Olson’s “distributional coalitions” can be governmental and parasitic in nature.
Plus, it although sound greats to liberals and the Left, one has to remember that most advanced economies utilised limited government mechanisms to achieve their unprecedented growth periods, exercising the self-discipline necessary to refrain from government interventions in the economy. The only real exception would be the FDR period and people forget that the FDR approach basically failed everywhere else it was tried, and it only succeeded in America for pretty unique one-off factors during the period.
A little closer to your home, you were praising Australian immigration system. However, it looks like lately it went the way of UK, Germany and the US.
Is it a problem now (woke elites stacking their deck), or all is still good?
As a relevant aside regarding the US: While the problem is mitigated for now, past four Biden years (or his woke handlers) are impossible to reverse. It appears they realized that Obama's deportations were a mistake after all, working against Obama's and his buddies often repeated gleeful predictions that whites will be minority by 2050, and decided to accelerate the process, so folks like Trump will never be elected again. And they sure will open the borders again when they get the power back.
Comprehensive, marvellously clear with, as we have come to expect, incisive encapsulations - my favourites this time :"theory fools" and "malice activism"
Those countries that continue to plunder will remain on Rise.
British Emipre had fallen and with no colonial free resources it continues to fall.
The USA continues to plunder so it remains wealthy.
Now brits being raped by pakistani migrants gangs. They are being plundered, soon they will loose.
So all western European countries are in desperate need of war. So they can continue to plunder the conquered territory.
But recent losses is ukraine, it made them loose a big chunk.
As long as world payment system and interbank settlement remain in control of western countries, they can plunder any small countries resources any time with a single click.
Brics settlement bank will be the nail in the cofin for any continued blackmailing for resource plundering.
Our age of decolonization is the obverse of the Age of Conquest, with the latter signaling the birth of modern Western civilization and the former signaling its death (by suicide).
Ironically (and hilariously) even though the New World was conquered in the name of Christ, our modern progressive clerisy is somehow both secular and materialist yet also hyper-Christian (much more Christian than any conquistador) and they deeply believe that "So the last will be first, and the first will be last" and "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female for ye are all one..." (But not "in Christ Jesus" instead in "universal human rights.")
It really pains them to witness the sufferings of the stigmatized Other, and like all good Protestants (whether they know it or not) they feel great shame and guilt knowing they have much while others have little (especially the great mark of Satan of our age: privilege) and their hearts are on fire with perfectionist zeal—they will usher in a great Kingdom of Justice and Equality on behalf of the downtrodden, even if it requires the dismantling of our societies. They will preach to their flock the entire litany of the sins of our ancestors—they built the modern world but forgot to ask for consent!—and will demand any and all reparations: land acknowlegments, replacing science with "indigenous ways of knowing", the repatriation of every artefact, the creation of a reverse hierarchy where the European man now wears a permanent hairshirt and dedicates his life to atonement and the rectification of historical injustice.
Modern Westerner liberals have been born with too much, the burden of guilt is too heavy for them, everywhere they go they feel the evil eyes of the Wretched of the Earth, always judging and denouncing. They know they're too weak to uphold the burdens of civilization—it requires too much responsibility, it might involve violence, it might damage the self-esteem of the subaltern—thus they want to give it all back in a spasm of suicidal atonement. And the Left professoriate will lead the way, as they have a great track record when it comes to engineering equality: every society where they've had power got to experience an equal amount of murder and misery.
Ours is the Age of White Guilt, which is why it seems like all our countries and institutions are run by its enemies and which is why our discourse is dominated by moral entrepreneurs and other narcissists. Virtue has never come so cheap and penitence has never been so lucrative!
Excellent summary!
Thanks!
I agree with much of this but i regard their guilt as almost entirely performative/self interested in that they use it to gain jobs and status yet make no real sacrifice eg going to Palestine to administer aid or housing migrants or gifting their wealth to the worlds poor
"their guilt as almost entirely performative/self interested"
of course!
But if all incentives move in the same direction—in this case the decolonization craze and the wholesale adoption of Social Justice morality—most ambitious people will go along to get along and then there's the True Believers and other opportunists who see this ideology as a ticket to social and career advancement.
The world's poor or the Palestinians are simply props in this Western psychodrama.
Well done
In some cases/ times it should certainly have been obvious that plundering a given society removed their capability to supply future plunder, thus providing only a short term gain. But once the conquering group was large or ferocious enough to recognize the (supposed) merit of enslaving the remaining captives (and accept the evil thereof), then resources could be replenished or excavated more deeply, etc.
Still, Buckminster Fuller referred to the use of energy as providing "energy slaves" instead of people slaves. I sometimes think that adding "slaves" was an inappropriate phrasing, compared to say "workers", "assistants", maybe even "servants".
I suppose even agnostics/ atheists can be so immersed in the Judeo-Christian cultural "invention" of assessing all people as having equal dignity, rights, justice, etc., that I cannot really imagine having an outlook that claimed there was merit in enslaving people or using slaves. Since we did not even have servants in our middle-class upbringing, I find the idea of employing people to do that sort of house, yard, or related work, as uncomfortable - and easier to do the work myself than arrange for and then supervise such "help". But as we age, the wisdom or necessity of employing others for such chores (perhaps especially as cooks or housekeepers) may become stronger (and easier to justify with resources from long term investments).
As usual, a thought-provoking essay. Thank you.
"Many economists are Theory-fools"
you can leave it there and not continue the sentence regarding migration. See e.g. the economists predictions about tariffs.
A lot of economic argument seems to be based on models that use "uniform spherical cows" or equivalent
History is where you find it. About those introduced diseases: My great grandfather is buried in a Charleston South Carolina cemetery opened in 1854, by a Lutheran church, because the then available cemetery space had been filled with German immigrants who died from outbreaks of Yellow Fever.
I am not quite sure of the family history that far back, but it sounds like I should appreciate that my German ancestors probably settled in the Illinois and Missouri areas, plus one of four grandparents immigrated in 1906 and became a naturalized citizen. The other 3 were native born around the same time (`1890?).
You’re so right! I’m reading Xenophon’s great book “Anabasis” and the fundamental way the Persian Cyrus motivated his troops was to promise them lots of plunder if they won.
Mate you just about covered every angle of why the north did not get rich by plundering the south. Do the same now, with a future focus.where are we going. Will we have a harem state run by fellows who have accumulated enough cash to access unlimited carnel joys and let the eunochs run the show by giving them status.
If plunder were the basis of societal wealth, Afghanistan would be one of the richest countries in the world, after their many invasions and plunderings of India.
Perhaps Alexander provided some education or guidance in just how to do that?
Did he just go off and do what he was good at, regardless of any philosophical guidance that might have been imparted by Aristotle to question the longer-term value of such a policy? I am not really familiar with the Aristotle oeuvre in detail - just the ride-by exposure - so maybe he was not particularly offended by the concept of slave classes??
Aristotle held there were natural slaves. Any universalist morality is going to have a problem with slavery. It either turns against slavery or argues some group is only fit to be slaves.
The Romans, who were not moral universalists, thought this was all Greek nonsense. Slaves were just losers. Freed slaves who became citizens became winners. End of story.
The exclusion of right wing thinking from academe is a serious and at that an increasingly serious problem. When groupthink dominates and right-think (ie left think!) signalling becomes compulsory, when marking is biased to left wing tropes, when conformity to the paradigm is compulsory for advancement, genuine enquiry and any interest in what actually works vs what is seen to be progressive dies. And we wonder why our societies are starting to decline. Pure decadence.
Great article. Can imagine your medieval and ancient history days go down a treat!
Moral Posing is the Opiate of The Elites.
It’s nice to see that J.A. Hobson is making a triumphant return on the left! What’s old is new again, like recycling!
Please don’t tell them that Hobson was refuted long ago: it’s the recipes and not the ingredients that determine economic prosperity.
Have you thought about using Mancur Olson’s “distributional coalitions” to explain the persistence of Global South poverty? The recent research in economics on the importance of strong institutions being needed as a necessary ingredient for prosperity doesn't focus on the fact that Mancur Olson’s “distributional coalitions” can be governmental and parasitic in nature.
Plus, it although sound greats to liberals and the Left, one has to remember that most advanced economies utilised limited government mechanisms to achieve their unprecedented growth periods, exercising the self-discipline necessary to refrain from government interventions in the economy. The only real exception would be the FDR period and people forget that the FDR approach basically failed everywhere else it was tried, and it only succeeded in America for pretty unique one-off factors during the period.
Lorenzo, great post.
A little closer to your home, you were praising Australian immigration system. However, it looks like lately it went the way of UK, Germany and the US.
https://www.visaverge.com/news/australias-mega-immigration-blowout-new-arrivals-outstrip-government-promise/
https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/media-releases/record-levels-of-unplanned-migration-continue-as-australians-struggle
Is it a problem now (woke elites stacking their deck), or all is still good?
As a relevant aside regarding the US: While the problem is mitigated for now, past four Biden years (or his woke handlers) are impossible to reverse. It appears they realized that Obama's deportations were a mistake after all, working against Obama's and his buddies often repeated gleeful predictions that whites will be minority by 2050, and decided to accelerate the process, so folks like Trump will never be elected again. And they sure will open the borders again when they get the power back.
Comprehensive, marvellously clear with, as we have come to expect, incisive encapsulations - my favourites this time :"theory fools" and "malice activism"
Those countries that continue to plunder will remain on Rise.
British Emipre had fallen and with no colonial free resources it continues to fall.
The USA continues to plunder so it remains wealthy.
Now brits being raped by pakistani migrants gangs. They are being plundered, soon they will loose.
So all western European countries are in desperate need of war. So they can continue to plunder the conquered territory.
But recent losses is ukraine, it made them loose a big chunk.
As long as world payment system and interbank settlement remain in control of western countries, they can plunder any small countries resources any time with a single click.
Brics settlement bank will be the nail in the cofin for any continued blackmailing for resource plundering.
BRICS Lol Russia and 3 train wrecks