V. S Naipaul in An Area of Darkness, talks about the English fantasy of Englishness in the 19th Century, “The cherished conviction,” as one Englishman wrote in 1883, “which is shared by every Englishman in India, from the highest to lowest, by the planter’s assistant in his lowly bungalow…to the Viceroy on his throne…that he belongs to a race whom God has destined to govern and subdue.”
Epicureans would be and are appalled by this type of arrogance. Moderation and common sense are the watchword of the true Epicurean, who despises strong-arm tactics and the bullying of the weak, and confines the use of force only to protect the family, and as a last resort.
This is the perverse modern view of the so-called Christian right and the neocon supporters of muscular American power, who have led us into Iraq, a disaster it is unnecessary to comment on here. The British Empire started to decline in the latter half of the 19th Century, unremarked by people at the time, partly for economic reasons, partly because there was an implicit faith that, since god had chosen the Brits to do his handiwork, they could basically relax in their arrogance and lord it over the natives, using brute military muscle to do the work of thought. While there were many good and talented colonial administrators etc., there were also many more people of limited ability and intellect involved in missionary work, who were deeply resented by by the ‘heathen’, and continue to be.
The British Empire has gone the way of empires , and the American empire will follow. Historians will deal harshly with the neocons and the armchair pundits of the Washington think tanks, who seem to get things even more wrong than their erstwhile British counterparts. These people are likewise earnest and arrogant in their ignorance and have learned absolutely nothing from history, that is if they value history at all, which is doubtful. they are a menace to America.
Wow Robert! While I couldnt agree with you more about the mess the Bushies have made, it looks like you need a vacation from the world and all of it’s problems, which of course none of us peons are going to solve; this year I have chosen not to watch tv “news”, nor have I involved myself in politics, and my blood pressure is much lower. Maybe try going down to the local pub and having a pint or two; I know I am going to do that in a few minutes!!
Mickey
Not really, Mickey. Maybe I say it too strongly. Like you, I have stopped watching TV and reading the political news, and like you I feel so much better.
Epicureanism works! I’m actually just going to see an opera and to hear some beautiful music. A pint would be good, too. Good to hear from you!
I reread your post and the comments which followed. I don’t get it, what was phrased "too strongly?" Naipaul’s was a statement of fact, as was your point that Americans are aping their British role models in using force against cultures that got in their way. Only we do it stupider. Here’s another person who long ago turned off TV so-called "news." I do, however, read about news but from a serene chair in my living room. Do you think that might mitigate the bad health effects? The serene perch, I mean. I must say, though, that I didn’t know about the English boozing scandal. I suppose the spirits industry is the Brit version of the NRA pressures here — great! a world awash in alcohol and guns. We could try some escape reading, like Dante’s "Inferno." Currently, though, I’m reading Elizabeth Gaskell’s insights into Victorian Britain when so much of the trouble started. Does that count as Epicurean relief, I wonder.
With regard to the British in India and their arrogance… as an ex planter’s wife living in India 40 years ago, the remarks I heard from Indian Nationals over and over a gain was ‘I wish the British were still here, we had justice then” . This, (for one reason) was because if you, as an Indian in the 1960s had money, you could buy yourself off a murder charge. I saw it happen.
This, according to my informants, would never have happened ‘under the British’…this and other vairious human rights were brought to India by the British. Should we, or should we not, have ‘imposed’ our culture upon them.?
What do you think???
We went there originally to make money. The traders of the original East India Company fitted in, took local wives or mistresses, learned the language(s) and saw it in their interests to fit in.
Then came the Mutiny, and a different type of (serious/ bureaucratic/religious) person came out from England. With them came English wives, who banished the sexy little lovelies and esconced themselves away from the poverty and smells in cantonments. The English abandoned learning the language and local cultures and concentrated on administration and converting the heathen, to the deep offense of the locals.
No doubt British administration was relatively honest and efficient, but I think no one has the right to assume superiority when it comes to culture , and no one should invade other people’s land without an invitation (forcefully or even peacefully). The missionaries may have meant well, but were as much a menace as the semi-educated nobodies who would have been factory workers in England and who found themselves mini-nabobs in India. Only a minority of people (maybe) were like this, but sufficient to alienate a big section of Indian opinion. Leave these people in peace! viz. Iraq and Afghanistan!