1/8
[thread] on imperialism and anti-imperialism.
Imperialism is in many ways a bad thing. Yet we don't simply look at our history and ask: "good or bad?"
We look at our history and we try to understand...
[thread] on imperialism and anti-imperialism.
Imperialism is in many ways a bad thing. Yet we don't simply look at our history and ask: "good or bad?"
We look at our history and we try to understand...
2/8
...we try to theorise, we try to see how it ended up here and where it might otherwise have ended up.
We don't start with an idea in our heads, we start by looking at the world in all its material complexity. And from the world as it is we think about worlds as they may be.
...we try to theorise, we try to see how it ended up here and where it might otherwise have ended up.
We don't start with an idea in our heads, we start by looking at the world in all its material complexity. And from the world as it is we think about worlds as they may be.
3/8
If we treat the ideology and practice of "anti-imperialism" in the same way, and if we trace its lineage through its specifically Leninist and then Stalinist heritage, to its "new left" and kitsch-Trotskyist incarnations, we see something which is no less frightening.
If we treat the ideology and practice of "anti-imperialism" in the same way, and if we trace its lineage through its specifically Leninist and then Stalinist heritage, to its "new left" and kitsch-Trotskyist incarnations, we see something which is no less frightening.
4/8
Opposition to imperialism ossified into totalitarian contempt for what exists.
Marx said the task of philosophy is the critique of all existing conditions, including critique itself.
And what Robert Fine called the critique of the critique is especially important here.
Opposition to imperialism ossified into totalitarian contempt for what exists.
Marx said the task of philosophy is the critique of all existing conditions, including critique itself.
And what Robert Fine called the critique of the critique is especially important here.
5/8
Yes, we should have a critique of imperialism. But we should also subject "anti-imperialism" to as careful a critique. And we should notice that the two great 20th Century totalitarianisms were also sworn enemies, rhetorically anyway, of British and American imperialism.
Yes, we should have a critique of imperialism. But we should also subject "anti-imperialism" to as careful a critique. And we should notice that the two great 20th Century totalitarianisms were also sworn enemies, rhetorically anyway, of British and American imperialism.
6/8
And we should look, further, at the misery, theft, mass killing and serious human rights abuses which have been committed by "anti-imperialist" forces - not least against minorities constructed essentially by them as "pro-imperialist" ...
And we should look, further, at the misery, theft, mass killing and serious human rights abuses which have been committed by "anti-imperialist" forces - not least against minorities constructed essentially by them as "pro-imperialist" ...
7/8
...the Jews, the Armenians, the Kurds, the Tamils, the Kenyan and Ugandan Asians, the Yazidis, the Bosniaks... the list goes on - victims of "anti-imperialism".
...the Jews, the Armenians, the Kurds, the Tamils, the Kenyan and Ugandan Asians, the Yazidis, the Bosniaks... the list goes on - victims of "anti-imperialism".
8/8
Opposition to imperialism is a democratic & left value which we shouldn't dismiss; but we should watch carefully when the ideology of "anti-imperialism" is raised to a new absolute, when it comes to trump equality, feminism, LBGTQ equality, democracy, freedom, liberty...etc.
Opposition to imperialism is a democratic & left value which we shouldn't dismiss; but we should watch carefully when the ideology of "anti-imperialism" is raised to a new absolute, when it comes to trump equality, feminism, LBGTQ equality, democracy, freedom, liberty...etc.
