did you all see this article? - Let's end the myths of Britain's imperial past
i hope the Dissensus response will not be like the one to Black Athena: "everyone knows this already", ("everyone" must meaning blogger friends because there is only too much evidence in the real world to the contrary), like the first commenter on the article:
it seems to me that taking pride in colonialist history is something for sure a TAD more popular and mainstream in England compared to Germany (not sure about Belgium or France or Spain or Portugal), with ignorance levels of its own violent history rivaling the United States. and one can see this clearly judging only by the comments, a fair portion of which are along the lines of "Colonialism was both good AND bad", "It was natural/Inevitable", "Other empires were worse", or a number of things like:
how exactly would you characterize contemporary Britain's relationship to something like the 30 million Indian deaths due to starvation because of British self serving agricultural policies? or similar things in Ireland? or these kinds of control and repressive mechanisms in general, largely invented by the English?
while the world still largely goes on endlessly about the Evil Germans, England seems to have gotten off much more easily. (comparisons are largely meaningless and futile, but just for perspective, of course the Nazis killed 6 million jews).
have you all read this?
i hope the Dissensus response will not be like the one to Black Athena: "everyone knows this already", ("everyone" must meaning blogger friends because there is only too much evidence in the real world to the contrary), like the first commenter on the article:
"Where on earth is this cosy consensus that the British Empire was a good thing? Please, Richard, point to some examples of textbooks currently used in schools and recent television programmes that enforce an uncomplicated belief in the greatness of the Empire.
I thought we were at least at post-post-revisionist history of this by now? Or did this article fall through from 1950 when the assumption of imperial superiority was fairly widespread?
it seems to me that taking pride in colonialist history is something for sure a TAD more popular and mainstream in England compared to Germany (not sure about Belgium or France or Spain or Portugal), with ignorance levels of its own violent history rivaling the United States. and one can see this clearly judging only by the comments, a fair portion of which are along the lines of "Colonialism was both good AND bad", "It was natural/Inevitable", "Other empires were worse", or a number of things like:
"What a load of whining leftie twaddle.
The world was, of course, a very different place a century or two ago. Applying current perspectives to almost anything from that age may result in the feeble-minded reaching for the human rights act and saying how nasty it all was. No shit, sherlock! The alternatives may not have been any less palatable, free or peaceful.
Proper history remains largely untaught in my children's schools - replaced by this kind of guilt-ridden thematic nonsense."
how exactly would you characterize contemporary Britain's relationship to something like the 30 million Indian deaths due to starvation because of British self serving agricultural policies? or similar things in Ireland? or these kinds of control and repressive mechanisms in general, largely invented by the English?
while the world still largely goes on endlessly about the Evil Germans, England seems to have gotten off much more easily. (comparisons are largely meaningless and futile, but just for perspective, of course the Nazis killed 6 million jews).
have you all read this?
![511wb6SPUUL._SL500_AA300_.jpg](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511wb6SPUUL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
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