4 ms·
> global destiny Does this mean what it sounds like it means?
by derrickdirge 10y ago
> global destiny
Does this mean what it sounds like it means?
- mathw 10y agoYes, and it's something the Brexit crowd are relying upon in their visions of our prosperity after leaving the EU. I happen to think it's a load of hogwash, but I really don't want to see them proven wrong because I'll still have to live through it.
- robert_foss 10y agoWell, it's a marketing prop that tries to refocus the attention on a conceivably positive aspect.
- robert_foss 10y agoWell, it's a marketing prop that tries to refocus the attention on a conceivably positive aspect. I don't think any new imperial ambitions will go over well.
- mangecoeur 10y agoPeople in the UK haven't quite gotten over that whole global empire thing. Every now and then they make documentaries about how they brought civilization to India or something.
- kchoudhu 10y agoI mean, the East India Company is still a going concern. It's worrying on numerous levels.
- detritus 10y agoOh dear. Go check what the 'modern East India Company' actually sells, who owns it and why he bought it.
- kchoudhu 10y agoOh, I know who owns it. Doesn't make the brand's continued existence any less repugnant. Think of it this way: do you think anyone could get away with selling Triangle Trade Rum?
- dingaling 10y agoIt's hard to convey just how incredibly huge and powerful was the East India Company. For example, they used to donate their used time-served warships to the Royal Navy as an act of charity! The closest parallel today would probably be something like a merger between Halliburton and Academi, the varied enterprises of which profit hugely from foreign adventurism of their host state and which have autonomous military potential in excess of that of many countries. But even that would fall well short in terms of revenue. Perhaps throw Apple into that mix as well and you'd get close.
- detritus 10y agoSource, or is that just some generalised opinion based on simplistic historical foreign parody?
- senorjazz 10y agoAnecdotal, but many do hold that view. Similarly anecdotal, whilst in India met many Indians who held the same view.
- dx034 10y agoNot about documentaries, but May talked today about the Commonwealth and the importance for UK trade. They hope to get better deals just because they've occupied the country a century ago.
- vixen99 10y agoEmpires were certainly established for the benefit of the empire builder but India also gained in many ways via British social reform - abolition of Sati (burning to death of widows) and child marriage for instance, construction of the railway system, roads, canals, mines, sewers, plantations and the establishment of English law and <language> and the idea of democracy. I haven't checked but if the BBC still make documentaries on colonization by the British they almost certainly focus on its undoubted sins along with corruption within the East India Company.
- ionised 10y agoYup, and as a Brit I have to facepalm every time I recognise this in the people around me.
- ionised 10y agoExceptionalism. We all know how well that turns out.