The Market Oracle : The Hypocrisy of Imperialism : Analysis of "Heart of Darkness", "Apocalypse Now" and Racist Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - Excellent !
There are accountants and financiers that have a warm heart to human beings and a good artistic illustration. Analysis of a famous book by Joseph Conrad and a famous movie by Francis Ford Coppola and application of their teachings to the current wars of Horror and Terror against "Islamic Rebels" or Innocent Third Worlders.
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Article : "The Hypocrisy of Imperialism, Charlie Don’t Surf"
By: James Quinn
James Quinn is a senior director of strategic planning for a major university. James has held financial positions with a retailer, homebuilder and university in his 22-year career. Those positions included treasurer, controller, and head of strategic planning. He is married with three boys and is writing these articles because he cares about their future. He earned a BS in accounting from Drexel University and an MBA from Villanova University. He is a certified public accountant and a certified cash manager.
February 10, 2010
The Hypocrisy of Imperialism, Charlie Don’t Surf
Some excerpts of a very long article :
The racist nature of imperialism is seen in J.A. Hobson’s justification: “It is desirable that the earth should be peopled, governed, and developed, as far as possible, by the races which can do this work best, i.e. by the races of highest 'social efficiency'.” The fact is that the European colonialists of the 19th Century saw Africans as an inferior race and that belief led to unspeakable brutality and dehumanization of an entire Continent. The Christian anti-communists in America saw the Vietnamese as a sub-human race of God-less savages. This opened the door to napalming villages, slaughtering women and children and carpet bombing their cities.
Today, the War on Terror is code for subjugating the Muslims of the Middle East. Americans view the natives occupying Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran as no better than dirty uneducated street people who worship an evil god and hate our way of life. This view permits the use of overwhelming firepower against people living in huts and caves. When another human life is considered not as valuable as your own, it is easy to call the deaths of women and children – collateral damage.
The United States “liberation” of Iraq has left 5 million orphans out of 12 million children under 18. The insanity of the civilized versus savages plot is when both Marlow’s and Willard’s boats are attacked by villagers with spears and arrows. The Chief is killed, but the overwhelming firepower is too much for the villagers. This same insanity can be seen in Iraq & Afghanistan as the natives use homemade explosives versus the U.S. military’s vast array of high tech weapons that cost millions. The few thousand terrorists in the world have already won.
On 9/11 the terrorists committed the greatest act of terror in history and murdered 3,000 innocent Americans. They killed .001% of the American population. They could not do permanent or long lasting damage to our country. We’ve done it for them. George Bush’s imperialist response to an act of terror was to double the national debt, start two wars, sacrifice thousands of young Americans, killing hundreds of thousands of people in their own countries and taking away freedoms and liberties of US citizens.
Imperialism will always be framed by those in power as beneficial to those being “civilized”. The most evil atrocities will be committed in the name of advancement. The human impact of imperialism is madness. The hubristic delusions of emperors, kings, generals and presidents ultimately put average men into morally ambiguous circumstances. Kurtz represents all men who have been commanded to commit crimes against humanity in the name of an organization or country.
Every man has the capacity to hand themselves over to evil if put into a chaotic, dangerous, vague situation for a long period of time. Any man could degenerate into a Kurtz when moral and physical restraints are taken away, because when no one is watching, the darkness of the human heart can escape from its deepest recesses.
The acts of barbarism committed in the Congo, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan by seemingly ordinary men were the result of madness. Some committed murder, others torture, but the majority internalized their inner ordeal resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder. When men know their mission is not morally legitimate, their souls become tormented. There is vagueness to our existence that we may never fathom – a real heart of darkness.
“All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.” – Joseph Conrad
“The horror, the horror.”
As long as imperialism is practiced by empire builders, men will be driven mad by these ambitions. Those who get pushed over the edge will pray for the end. It will be their only friend. Empires always collapse under the weight of their imperialistic ventures. The cost of imperial overreach and the moral descent into a heart of darkness ultimately mark the end of an empire. The American empire is on this path. The only question is whether it will end in a whimper or in a blaze of fire which brings the entire world to an end.
Today, the War on Terror is code for subjugating the Muslims of the Middle East. Americans view the natives occupying Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran as no better than dirty uneducated street people who worship an evil god and hate our way of life. This view permits the use of overwhelming firepower against people living in huts and caves. When another human life is considered not as valuable as your own, it is easy to call the deaths of women and children – collateral damage.
The United States “liberation” of Iraq has left 5 million orphans out of 12 million children under 18. The insanity of the civilized versus savages plot is when both Marlow’s and Willard’s boats are attacked by villagers with spears and arrows. The Chief is killed, but the overwhelming firepower is too much for the villagers. This same insanity can be seen in Iraq & Afghanistan as the natives use homemade explosives versus the U.S. military’s vast array of high tech weapons that cost millions. The few thousand terrorists in the world have already won.
On 9/11 the terrorists committed the greatest act of terror in history and murdered 3,000 innocent Americans. They killed .001% of the American population. They could not do permanent or long lasting damage to our country. We’ve done it for them. George Bush’s imperialist response to an act of terror was to double the national debt, start two wars, sacrifice thousands of young Americans, killing hundreds of thousands of people in their own countries and taking away freedoms and liberties of US citizens.
Imperialism will always be framed by those in power as beneficial to those being “civilized”. The most evil atrocities will be committed in the name of advancement. The human impact of imperialism is madness. The hubristic delusions of emperors, kings, generals and presidents ultimately put average men into morally ambiguous circumstances. Kurtz represents all men who have been commanded to commit crimes against humanity in the name of an organization or country.
Every man has the capacity to hand themselves over to evil if put into a chaotic, dangerous, vague situation for a long period of time. Any man could degenerate into a Kurtz when moral and physical restraints are taken away, because when no one is watching, the darkness of the human heart can escape from its deepest recesses.
The acts of barbarism committed in the Congo, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan by seemingly ordinary men were the result of madness. Some committed murder, others torture, but the majority internalized their inner ordeal resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder. When men know their mission is not morally legitimate, their souls become tormented. There is vagueness to our existence that we may never fathom – a real heart of darkness.
“All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.” – Joseph Conrad
“The horror, the horror.”
As long as imperialism is practiced by empire builders, men will be driven mad by these ambitions. Those who get pushed over the edge will pray for the end. It will be their only friend. Empires always collapse under the weight of their imperialistic ventures. The cost of imperial overreach and the moral descent into a heart of darkness ultimately mark the end of an empire. The American empire is on this path. The only question is whether it will end in a whimper or in a blaze of fire which brings the entire world to an end.
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