Kipling

John K. Taber jktaber at dhc.net
Mon Mar 29 09:40:54 PST 1999


Carrol Cox wrote:

<<"John K. Taber" wrote:


> 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.

My original point was it was precisely this sort of "complexity" and "uncomfortable awareness" that is the most sinister form of pro- imperialism. All such mea culpas (combined with an implict or explicit, But what would you have us do?) should be read in the light of Yoshie's recent criticism of auto-critique. They play the same double role. Everyone should remember (or look up) the the record of anguished liberals in supporting the Vietnam War.>>

Nice point, Carrol! Not a thing I would disagree with, but you sharpened it up and made me better aware of "hand-wringing complicity" than I would have been otherwise.



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