Not so surprising really, there is wide spectrum of opinion on everything under the sun inside and outside of every empire under the sun ... WJB had a lot of support from US nationals of conscience who would rather have seen their nation mind its own business, and prominent people like Cleveland, Clemens, and Carnegie -
'"Congratulations," Andrew Carnegie wrote to a leading
expansionist. "You seem to have about finished your work of
civilizing the Filipinos. It is thought that about eight thousand of
them have been completely civilized and sent to heaven. I
hope you like it." '
smplanet.com
'Civilisation begins at home' - utep.edu
But there were, as now, so many others without any respect whatsoever for principles supposedly underlying the republic -
'"What few who are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians." '
... this by the guy who wrote Wizard of Ox, L. Frank Baum - geocities.com
Nixon is supposed to have muttered when closing the gold window that 'WJB ran three times against the gold standard, and lost' ... well not exactly true, WJB was in favour of retaining/restoring bimetallism, the use of silver as well as gold, instead of gold alone .... somewhere on the net is presented a theory that Baum's Wizard of Oz is a metaphor for WJB's campaign in this regard, and supportive of it ... somehow i think though that they were two entirely separate levels of beings, given B's white man's burden crap
There just have to be reasonable people, somewhere, in a nation of three hundred millions ... eh ... not referring to Chomsky either, got to admire the man's ability to stand up to flak but he doesn't do with it quite what i'd like to see, too lefty for me, in the old-time sense, gives no recognition of what a truly free enterprise system could accomplish, nor of the failings of top-controlled societies ... but he was front and centre in bringing to light what Reagan and his goons were doing to the centroamericanos, got to give him that |
