The Innate Goodness of Brits

[topp8564 at mail.usyd.edu.au]

I think I just heard a UK general say that the British are "uniquely placed" to 
win the battle for the hearts and minds becase "we British have an innate sense 
of what it's like for other people" to go through nasty regimes.  I think he 
said that. Maybe I hallucinated, or maybe my radio is channelling V.S. Naipaul. 
Or maybe 700 years of genocidal British behaviour have just vanished into thin 
smoke now that the defense minister is some codger with scouse accent. Or maybe 
the unique aptitude of the British in this instance comes precisely with the 
colonialist knowhow you only get with having enslaved most of the world at one 
point or another. Or maybe the emphasis was meant to be on "other" people. 

As Zizek has it, there are just too many meanings around. These press 
conferences are like fruit salad with anchovies and catsup.

Thiago 

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