Conquest & cosmopolitanism: The point of empire is domination & exploitation. The legacies of empire-building can include peace, technology transfer, cultural exchange, and trade. Do not attempt to...
"Lester and his ilk are an ‘ally .... of Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia and the Chinese Communist Party." Which is quite hypocritical because China had an empire too (Tibet, Xinjiang, etc.) and the Russian Empire expanded all the way to the Pacific just like the United States did.
BIGOT: Why should I feel ashamed of bad things my father and grandfather did?
ME: Fine, don't…as long as you never feel proud of anything good they did.
2.) Nostalgia for milennia of brutal domination by _local_ bullies is reminiscent to me of the clichéd propensity of people who believe in reïncarnation to believe that they were lirds and ladies and kings and queens in past lives, when the odds overwhelmingly favour 'Serf, Serf, lived three months, serf, lived four years, villein, serf…'. It's also reminiscent of other cases of people identifying with powerful people who don't think too much of them, and the mythic pasts replete with social harmony the powerful sell them.
Vaguely related:
I just read someone's claim that the description of an idyllic Aztec Empire in Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer", to me an apogee of misplaced anti-imperial nostalgia, was intended as _satire_ on Young's own nostalgia for a failed relationship. As I said to a staunch defender of Heinlein's "Starship Troopers", 'If thatʼs what he meant to say he should have done it better.'.
"Lester and his ilk are an ‘ally .... of Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia and the Chinese Communist Party." Which is quite hypocritical because China had an empire too (Tibet, Xinjiang, etc.) and the Russian Empire expanded all the way to the Pacific just like the United States did.
0.) 'What have the Romans ever done for _us_!?'
1.)
BIGOT: Why should I feel ashamed of bad things my father and grandfather did?
ME: Fine, don't…as long as you never feel proud of anything good they did.
2.) Nostalgia for milennia of brutal domination by _local_ bullies is reminiscent to me of the clichéd propensity of people who believe in reïncarnation to believe that they were lirds and ladies and kings and queens in past lives, when the odds overwhelmingly favour 'Serf, Serf, lived three months, serf, lived four years, villein, serf…'. It's also reminiscent of other cases of people identifying with powerful people who don't think too much of them, and the mythic pasts replete with social harmony the powerful sell them.
Vaguely related:
I just read someone's claim that the description of an idyllic Aztec Empire in Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer", to me an apogee of misplaced anti-imperial nostalgia, was intended as _satire_ on Young's own nostalgia for a failed relationship. As I said to a staunch defender of Heinlein's "Starship Troopers", 'If thatʼs what he meant to say he should have done it better.'.