#imperialism

They (Romans) were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea - something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to... ↗

— Joseph Conrad

#men

Often, men want money to get women, or to use women to get money, or both at the same time. ↗

— Bryant McGill

#men-and-women #slavery #men

The arrogance and brutality of empire are not repealed when they temporarily get deployed in a just cause. ↗

— Michael Kazin

#arrogance #brutality #imperialism #united-states #war

The colonialist's existence is so closely aligned with that of the colonized that he will never be able to overcome the argument which states that misfortune is good for something. With all his power he must disown the colonized while their existence is indispensable to his own. Having chosen to maintain the colonial system, he must contribute more vigor to its defense than would have been needed to dissolve it completely. Having become aware of the unjust relationship which ties him to the colonized, he must continually attempt to absolve himself. He never forgets to make a public show of his own virtues, and will argue with vehemence to appear heroic and great. At the same time his privileges arise just as much from his glory as from degrading the colonized. ↗

— Albert Memmi

#colonialism #europeans #history #imperialism #politics

That’s what imperialism is all about, shoving your language, religion, culture, and race down others’ throats and telling them that they’re beneath you – and it’s not unique to the West either. ↗

— M.B. Wilmot

#colonialism #imperialism #racism #religion

Respectable opinion would never consider an assessment of the Reagan Doctrine or earlier exercises in terms of their actual human costs, and could not comprehend that such an assessment—which would yield a monstrous toll if accurately conducted on a global scale—might perhaps be a proper task in the United States. At the same level of integrity, disciplined Soviet intellectuals are horrified over real or alleged American crimes, but perceive their own only as benevolent intent gone awry, or errors of an earlier day, now overcome; the comparison is inexact and unfair, since Soviet intellectuals can plead fear as an excuse for their services to state violence. ↗

— Noam Chomsky

#consensus #fear #hypocrisy #intellectuals #international-law

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. ↗

— Omar Nelson Bradley

#humanism #humanity #imperialism #nuclear-weapons #peace

Based on the considerations of history, ancient history, and international axioms, the logic of following up a citizen with his shadow for the purpose of the demarcation of political frontiers of any state has been discounted for international conventions. For example the Arabs cannot ask Spain just because they were there some time in the past nor can they ask for any other area outside the frontiers of the Arab homeland ↗

— Saddam Hussein

#arabism #arabs #axioms #expansionalism #imperialism

We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate. ↗

— Lydia Maria Francis Child

#imperialism #injustice #oppression #racism #rationalization

Imperialism or globalization - I don't have to care what it's called to hate it. ↗

— Bill Ayers

#care #globalization #hate #i #imperialism