----- Original Message ---- From: Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Mon, November 16, 2009 5:59:40 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] french love of thugs (with style)
Churchill on the conquest of Sudan: "Year after year, and stretching back to an indefinite horizon, we see the figures of the odd and the bizarre potentates on whom the British arms continuously are turned. They pass in a long procession: - The Akhund of Swat; Cetewayo, brandishing an assegai as naked as himself; Kruger, singing a psalm of victory; Osman Digna, the Immortal and the Irretrievable; Theebaw, with his Umbrella; Lobengula, gazing fondly at the pages of Truth; Prempeh, abasing himself in the dust; the Mad Mullah, on his white ass; and, latest of all, the Khalifa in his coach of state. It is like a pantomime scene at Drury Lane. These extraordinary foreign figures - each with his complete set of crimes, horrible customs, and "minor peculiarities" - march one by one from the dark wings of barbarism up to the bright footlights of civilisation…. The potentates and their trains pass on, some to exile, some to prison, some to death… and their conquerors, taking their possessions, forget even their names. Nor will history record such trash." Churchill on Palestine: "I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." The guy was a thug, and not only by modern standards. And as an added note: it's okay sometimes to amend one's opinion on something or somebody.
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