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To: Borges
was a paternalist

That describes all the European colonizers, who sent Christian missionaries and doctors into the Dark Continent, and to Asia and the Americas.

The French wanted to make all colonials "Frenchmen."

The British enthusiastically pursued Kipling's "White Man's Burden," seeing it their duty to educate, civilize, and uplift the "wogs."

7 posted on 01/14/2025 2:56:39 PM PST by Angelino97
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To: Angelino97

Well, no, the British didn’t really push “the white mans burden”. Of all the colonizers the British had the least ideological baggage.

That line comes from Kiplings poem, “The White Mans Burden”, which is sarcastic and ironic, with reference to the new imperial ambitions of the US. Kipling himself wasn’t sold on the value of empire, or of its beneficial effects on its subjects (or that there was a possibility of it), and wrote mainly on its costs.

Boh Da Thone was a warrior bold:
His sword and his rifle were bossed with gold,

And the Peacock Banner his henchmen bore
Was stiff with bullion, but stiffer with gore.

He shot at the strong and he slashed at the weak
From the Salween scrub to the Chindwin teak:

He crucified noble, he scarified mean,
He filled old ladies with kerosene:


16 posted on 01/14/2025 3:57:02 PM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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