I had been asked to give a keynote speech at a conference at Columbia University’s Journalism School. It was January 2002. Two planes had been flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center months earlier and you could still feel how wounded the city felt. You could read it in the faces of New Yorkers you spoke to.
But it was the words of one of his classmates that come back to me now. He had arrived in New York just a few days before 9/11 from his native Pakistan to study at Columbia. He likened the United States to Imperial Rome.
"If you are lucky enough to live within the walls of the Imperial Citadel, which is to say here in the US, you experience American power as something benign. It protects you and your property. It bestows freedom by upholding the rule of law. It is accountable to the people through democratic institutions.
“But if, like me, you live on the Barbarian fringes of Empire, you experience American power as something quite different. It can do anything to you, with impunity… And you can’t stop it or hold it to account.”
I am not sure if you are being ironic. Are you claiming Russia and China don’t have imperialistic aspirations?
China almost none (reintegrating the colonized territories is not imperialism, but anti imperialism), and Russia, maybe but they’re defanged, and certainly not to the extent of the West? That has never been part of their civilization’s psyche. I mean, FFS, the only real ideological development worth anything that came from this side of the world comes from the Russians side of Europe in the form of Marxism/Leninism. I trust them more with right and wrong and power than I do France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands (Dutch East India Company), Belgium (King Leopold)… I don’t think any group of people have been as bloodthirsty, violent and amoral as these ones. You might disagree and I understand why, but any non propagandised mind outside of the Western sphere of influence knows what I’m talking about. Also, China is literally making deals and not dropping bombs around the world which, regardless of spin, is a much better alternative, lol, and the big imperialist beast in their region is and has historically been Japan, come on.
“it’s never been in their psyche” why is Russia as large as it is today?
Why is the rest of the world not speaking Russian besides some countries in Europe in their vicinity ? 🤔
Why does Russia extend to the Far East? Hmmmmm? Why are there less Circassians in the Circassian Republic than in Turkey? Hmmmm…
Maybe (and this might seem crazy) other countries, those with easy access to the seas and warm water ports, colonized Africa and the Americas, while Muscovy, with prime access to the Lands beyond the Ural and a pathway into the Caucasus, colonized those areas.
@yappymonotheist I find your take immoral, racist with a tad of fascistic nationalistic influences, and definitely disinformed. I really hope it’s just ragebait.
I don’t even know what to say, this is a mess of words, lol. If you’re “baited”, it’s probably your cognitive dissonance.
Marx was German.
But where did this take place? What society put it forward? And what society put Nazism forward? 🤔
Why do you think Russia “maybe” had “imperialistic aspirations?” There was a dump recently of Putin’s conversations with Bush-Cheney that answered the question, but, as Parenti put it, manufacturing reality happened.
Simplify and detail it for me Maeve, please, what exactly are you referring too? I’m sorry but I just came home from a long shift. 🥲
USA has repeatedly made and broken promises to Russia, like everyone else they (we) dealt with. We promised Russia no NATO creep into their back yard (“not one inch!”) and we constantly push NATO closer. We’re fighting a proxy war, including a regime change, with Ukraine. Then sanction Russia for anything that might help them help their people.
Oh, yeah, definitely. Sorry about the downvotes, they should’ve been on me! But I assume you don’t really care and understand this is just the holler of intellectually hit dogs. They’ll come around, sooner or later. 😅
Not worried about any of it. It’s concerning my compatriots get but a glimpse of what we’ve dealt to the global South, and still believe every word the empire tells them to believe.
Well put. Judge nations by their actions.