Centuries ago British missionaries and traders set out for respectively upliftment and profit. Christianity and free trade went hand-in-hand. The former demanded cleanliness and the adoption of British values, the latter free trade often enforced by gunboat diplomacy. The result was the upliftment of weaker peoples, the plunder of the developed and the dissemination of the British version of coupling democracy and capitalism.
Whilst the British Empire is in tatters, the legacy values spread during its heyday dominates the world political scene: the UN and the USA (the last of the superpowers) have both taken up the burden of spreading capitalism and democracy; a worldwide brotherhood of men. Enforcement is by means of political and financial pressure.
Do Google Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden: an exhortation for the enforcement of a worldwide hegemony of thought by one of the primary apologists of the British Empire.
In step with burgeoning nationalism, but out of step with almost everything else, is a largely symbolic law passed by the Knesset that only Jews have the right of self-determination in Israel. This decision was described as a defining moment in the annals of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel.
Trump is the leading disciple of what is referred to as cultural racism or simply the right to cultural retention, depending on one’s point of view. America had, at least until now, been able to assimilate foreigners into its culture which it still imposes on others. The irony is that the (soon to be?) majority of Americans will quite possibly not subscribe to these views.
Yesterday we witnessed a hit on those presumably related to the taxi industry. Reportedly hundreds of rounds were fired into a taxi, killing eleven. What would be the difference in our reaction if this assassination had been carried out in the name of religion? How would that differ from an assassination in the name of profit?
