tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post4790929969532850907..comments2024-03-01T14:27:35.794-08:00Comments on Albion Awakening: Empire and AlbionBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-3454359468366705092018-04-19T13:16:39.741-07:002018-04-19T13:16:39.741-07:00I'm not saying that the thing hadn't run i...I'm not saying that the thing hadn't run its course, Edwin. It very definitely had and I think everyone but the most obtuse recognised that. It's only that the changeover could and should have been better managed. The spiritual mission, if such it was, had been completed by the time of WW2 and Britain couldn't have sustained the Empire anyway. It has enough trouble looking after itself these days.William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-62746977291776906312018-04-19T08:16:40.664-07:002018-04-19T08:16:40.664-07:00It may be that many people were better off under B...It may be that many people were better off under British rule - in terms of social order and the distribution of wealth - but such benefits depended upon the forced submission to an armed invader and the loss of autonomy. It is also said, though only in guarded whispers these days, that blacks in America were better off under slavery. Emancipation granted freedom to many who were ill-equipped to exercise it wisely and we are still seeing the consequences of this in the moral and social rot of our big cities to where many former slaves migrated. The problems that come with freedom may be quite terrible and full of tragic consequences, but such problems seem to be a necessary step in moral and spiritual growth, for individuals as well as for nations. I don't know that a convincing case can be made that the British empire had a spiritual mission that was cut short by imprudent men, nor would I place too much confidence in de Gaullle's claims, grand as they sound. Such are the thoughts of a poor colonial who recognizes his country's debt to British culture, and his personal debt to its great literature, which has been one of the great joys of my life. Edwinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-18008672940835062342018-04-19T03:31:16.256-07:002018-04-19T03:31:16.256-07:00Again, I couldn't agree more. There are those ...Again, I couldn't agree more. There are those who really want to do the right thing and those who want to be seen as doing the right thing.William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-58591635395774854932018-04-19T03:15:22.960-07:002018-04-19T03:15:22.960-07:00@William - How interesting to get the inside '...@William - How interesting to get the inside 'story' about this. I have no doubt that those who washed their hands of the colonies felt smug and self-congratulatory - no matter what happened next. <br /><br />This seems to be the defining characteristic of modern-Leftism - every 'reform' is justified in terms of leading to desirable consequences (instrumental ethics), but as sone as the reform has been implemented the (overwhelmingly bad) consequences are ignored, denied, explained-away - and those who point them out are ostracised (like Enoch Powell - a very early example). <br /><br />I think WB Yeats had it with his phrases that things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, the falcon (Man) cannot hear the falconer (God)... it is the loss of God at the centre of Man's being which has led to this moral insanity; whereby there is no moral coherence, and no attempt at coherence, and any attempt to be coherent is resisted or ridiculed - and yet the incoherence is itself denied...Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-80292664602218617412018-04-19T02:48:15.560-07:002018-04-19T02:48:15.560-07:00John, we can but hope!John, we can but hope!William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-84515836579726291282018-04-19T02:47:04.114-07:002018-04-19T02:47:04.114-07:00Good points Bruce, all of which I agree with. The ...Good points Bruce, all of which I agree with. The British in the colonies were a different sort to those back at home and did tend to be more upright in many respects perhaps because a sense of responsibility. And regarding your third paragraph, many of the poorer Indians when I was there who were old enough to remember the Empire certainly did feel they were better off under the British. <br /><br />The 3 state thing was apparently one of the reasons that Lord Wavell was replaced as Viceroy by Mountbatten who knew nothing about India. Wavell thought it was a mistake and wanted to space out independence over a time period rather than give it all at once precisely to avoid problems between rival communities. The new govt after the war wanted to get rid of the colonies asap and wash their hands of the whole thing, and we know how tragically that turned out in India. I know this because Michael Lord was ADC to Lord Wavell when he was viceroy.<br /><br /><br /><br />William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-20106306685424796292018-04-18T22:39:50.302-07:002018-04-18T22:39:50.302-07:00@William - I agree that that was the divinely inte...@William - I agree that that was the divinely intended destiny of the British Empire - which was abandoned in Britain itself before it was abandoned in the Empire (since the modern apostasy and materialism began in Britain). <br /><br />In materialistic terms, the British Empire certainly benefitted the inhabitants of most colonies - as was clear, to those with eyes, when the British left. The beneficiaries of ex-colonial nationalism and 'independence' have been the local colonial elites (who now get to be the ruling class, instead of the middle class). <br /><br />But the masses had to endure a heavy price for their new ruling class becoming local: a greatly reduced standard of living and a very great deal of violence, death and disease. And the fragmentation process, once started, is difficult to stop - India for example, ended-up as three states (with I don't know how many millions dead in the process). <br /><br />Exactly the same story unfolded in Rhodesia and South Africa. Ironically, the Western elites suddenly 'get spiritual' when discussing such matters - and the emergence of mass starvation, mass rape and murder, and rule by psychopathic gangsters suddenly become insignificant problems - compared with the supposed enhancement of (undefined) Freedom and vague slogans. <br /><br />Still, as things happened, the British Empire was a spiritual disaster for the English - who all-but lost their identity in it; and by the end were left with almost nothing. Although it is possible that the kind of atheist/ leftist nationalism which the Empire developed in the Irish, Scots and Welsh may be even more damageing to the soul than the English situation. <br /><br />These 'celtic' nations worship a false materialist God fuelled by anti-English ressentiment... and perhaps no God at all (the English situation) is a better preparation for the truth than this type of Antichrist. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-72883414883037238822018-04-18T15:41:14.985-07:002018-04-18T15:41:14.985-07:00That's a bold and perceptive piece, Wiliam. Th...That's a bold and perceptive piece, Wiliam. The Shakespeare critic, G Wilson Knight, who I wrote about on this blog towards the end of 2016, held a similar view, seeing Shakespeare as the prophet of a future, spiritually-orientated British Empire. I'm told that Lawrence James is a very good historian of the Empire, though I haven't read any of his books. It might be worth meantioning as well that Charles de Gaulle, if I recall correctly from my studies in French history, saw the French Empire in similar terms - as an essentially spiritual force with a long term future that transcended its physical existence in time and space.John Fitzgeraldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13951246561259007162noreply@blogger.com