<You are excellent at climbing back down your wall of hubris when confronted with a strong voice challenging you arrogant views w/r/t the "white man's burden". We both know exactly what a load of excrement that lie truly is.>
Ray, the White Man's Burden wasn't so much a lie as a misunderstanding. When the phrase was coined, the world was full of barbarians, such as the Maoris. It was indeed White Men who invented all that habeas corpus freedom stuff, rule of law rather than ruler, democracy rather than brute force by gang, literature and language which enabled thinking in broad contexts, mathematics and science which brought control over nature [well, not really control, but the ability to understand and use natural laws].
In making a wild generalisation, they used the tribal 'White Man' rather than the more narrow sociological phenomenon which it really was. But since it was actually empire being built, it served to include the minions of the process to keep the whole process going - it was convenient shorthand, albeit inaccurate.
The melanin deficiency of Europeans wasn't really one of the factors involved. That's judging a book by it's cover, but describing the cover of a book can be a useful way of identifying it when it's the only book with the contents.
Now that civilisation has spread far and wide, the magic ingredients are found in all societies to a greater or lesser extent. It's that combination of intelligence and enlightenment which is what we are really trying to find. Heck, even in the barbarian societies, there were no doubt individuals wishing to break free, but were completely subsumed by the community in which they lived. The fact that they were there, waiting for release, is why colonisation was so successful - the local supporters who could see the light were all gung ho for it as a means of escaping their barbarian surrounds.
Once escaped, they then get the cloak of responsibility laid over their shoulders and they too must bear the burden. Not all are called to share the White Man's Burden and that's why it remains a burden - the White Man contributes so much more than those unable to get with the programme.
Silly Harry Belafonte [whose singing I enjoyed so much decades ago] accuses Colinisation Powell as being an Uncle Tom houseboy. Harry doesn't get it. Colin is a White Man too. Actually, Harry is too, though he doesn't realize it and pretends that he isn't. We, the White Men of the world [which can even include women, though they remain Y-chromosome deficient, which is not too bad because they avoid testosterone toxicity], have the burden of continuing to shoulder the responsibility in the face of the barbarians who in the 21st century are still Head-Hacking, bombing, and flying airliners into majestic buildings full of people.
We will prevail, just as our ancestors prevailed over our chimpoid antecedents.
Notice how the ex-colonies have struggled to maintain the accoutrements of civilisation. Mugabe is struggling manfully to remain a White Man, but has mistaken Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler for White Men. Hong Kong is still run by White Men though the locals have complete control [with a bit of supervision from Beijing and that soon to be installed White Man Hu Jintao - I hope he is a White Man].
Nobless Oblige,
Mqurice
PS: I feel somewhat sorry for the English, because the normal grotty Englishman mistook himself as being a White Man. However, emigration to the colonies depleted their ranks. As the local yokels took on the cloak of White Man, the British Empire ceased to have function and dwindled right back to the borders of Northern Ireland, where the malevolent tribal local yokels like Gerry Adams are still trying to pretend they are White Men [they continue to fail because they are not].
Some newly-ordained White Men from the colonies emigrated to Britain. Which resulted in some hilarious situations, because the common lowly Englishman, who was not really a White Man at all, got confused.
I recall an encounter at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in 1974. I was listening to a well-dressed, handsome, educated, intelligent, eloquent, erudite White Man, speaking with a good quality Pommy accent. His melanin-rich skin showed African ancestry. A grotty little pommy guy, dishevelled, belligerent, snuffling and obnoxious piped up "Why don't you go back where you came from?"
Said melanin-rich White Man enquired as to where he should go, since he was a Londoner, born and bred, which was evident from his accent, demeanour etc etc.
I felt sorry for the melanin-deficient guy because he also obviously lacked understanding and his life was obviously difficult enough without trying to understand how come these barbarian natives were now running around his Empire as though they owned the place.
The White Gentleman shared the White Man's burden well, tolerating said poor pom who had lost his Empire and was living a life of befuddlement [not that we all aren't befuddled to a greater or lesser extent - 99.90% to 99.99% being the normal human range] |
