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I think the case for western imperial guilt is more than a little overstated -- but the main difference is that we (assuming you're a fellow westerner) live in
by mseebach 9y ago
I think the case for western imperial guilt is more than a little overstated -- but the main difference is that we (assuming you're a fellow westerner) live in a direct continuation of empire, and enjoy the spoils from it, in a way neither Mongolians or Georgians can be said to do.
- Boothroid 9y agoSo then whether or not you are allowed to celebrate your lost empire depends on whether you are still experiencing the benefits of it, and not how terrible that empire was? Seems a strange way to judge things.
- sirtaj 9y agoPeople still routinely admire the military prowess of western imperialist leaders like Caesar and Alexander ("the Great") and more recent ones like Napoleon without endorsing their reasons for going to war.
- LeifCarrotson 9y agoIt's more about whether the ideology of that empire infiltrated your subsequent historical narrative. Western culture is built on the results of the Greek and Roman empires, the Catholic Church, the English (and French/Spanish/Portuguese/Dutch) empire, and the American conquest. No one is the villain of their own story. And these empires - not the Persian, Ottoman, Germanic, native American, Russian, and other empires which opposed them, or the Chinese, Japanese, and Mongolian, and other empires which didn't feature in their storyline - wrote the storybooks. It's the natural way to judge things - perhaps not the most accurate or honest, but those take a lot of effort to establish.