Doug wrote:
Doug asked:
>Anyone know how British imperialism represented itself? Did it wear a
>"humanitarian" cloak, or is this a specifically American (moralizing)
>style? Was it more honest about "straight power concepts," as Kennan put it
>in that infamous memo?
And K. Mickey replied:
<<Try Kipling:
Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed-- Go, bind your sons to exile.
To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild-- Your new-caught , sullen peoples,
Half -devil and half-child.
(snip) Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard.
.............
And more prosaically even today, just watch how the Brits act like the Ulster problem is all to do with the warring tribes in Ireland, not with the British presence itself.>>
I think Kipling is a good example of an apologist for British imperialism, but he's more subtle than this quote out of context implies. In this "White Man's Burden" Kipling was being sarcastic about America's claim to the White Man's Burden vis-a-vis the Phillipines. He is addressing America.
Perhaps better is Fuzzy-Wuzzie, if I remember the title right. He honors the native resistance fighter for his manliness, but it's clear that it is the Englishman who defines manliness. Fuzzy-Wuzzie wins Kipling's (ruefull?) respect for living up to the white man's ideal.
Another interesting poem is The Last of the Light Brigade. You need to read it side by side with Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade. The Empire was built by the exploitation of poor dumb (mostly Irish) soldiers treated with unconcealed contempt by the rulers. Kipling's sympathy is clearly on the poor dumb soldier's side.
Years ago, Kipling was more or less ignored as an embarrassment. That he is. But it would be nice if scholars revisited him because underneath his pro-imperialism is some uncomfortable awareness of imperialism's sins.
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