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I read this passage as calling out the hypocrisy of the English intellectuals who benefit from colonialism in India while flippantly call out its moral faults.
by Leary 8y ago
I read this passage as calling out the hypocrisy of the English intellectuals who benefit from colonialism in India while flippantly call out its moral faults. It is not making a statement that imperialism is better than its alternative.
Indeed Orwell himself calls out the overbearing attitude of the British "flabby" and "boneless"
- graeme 8y agoWhat I meant to suggest is that many people in the US took for granted the benefits of their hegemony, much like the British intellectuals took for granted the benefits of their imperialism. Hence, it may be a surprise to some that loss of US hegemony may be replaced by a China-ization of the internet outside of China. Orwell was an anti-imperialist. I didn’t mean to say that imperialism was a good thing - that wasn’t what he was saying. (US hegemony may or may not be a good thing compared to the alternative - that will only become clear with time. I think it’s less obvious than in the case of imperialism)