Was the British empire evil?

[enchanted]

Great conversation on this topic. Hasan and Bigger debate this topic both making good points. I bet many people wrestle with this topic or just prefer not to think about it: Should people look to their past with awe or with guilt?

 

[enchanted]

The issue here they are debating is whether moral relativism for me but not for thee is appropriate 

[enchanted]

Hasan is arguing that European colonialist were particularly evil, while Biggar is arguing that everyone's equally evil and white people should not feel bad about colonialism.

What do you guys think?

Edited 6 hours ago by enchanted

[LordFall]

Well of course it was evil but what to do about it is a good question. Humans are an apex predator and we're still fighting to the death for control over the planet so of course our history is gonna be mostly a giant struggle with violence and evil acts as part of every kingdom, empire and country. 

Reparations are an important topic and civil rights are a beautiful concept that we figured out. 

[Schizophonia]

Individuality is an illusion; individuals are the instruments of collective subjects and of history in general.

The British Empire came about as the automatic, logical result of material conditions and by extension of the mental structures those conditions engender in people.

You view it as ""bad"" because your mental structures and thus your superego are the product of modern living conditions within your social position; it therefore has nothing to do with the British Empire.

The dichotomies of good vs evil, selfish vs altruistic etc are delusional, childish, and narcisstistic because it's always lowkey about placing oneself above another. It can manifest via affirmer domination/sadism (generally the right-wing perspective; the nationalism by exemple) or conversely via a masochistic/guilt inducing stance (generally the left-wing perspective); yet in both cases the underlying aim is to signal one's superiority over others.

Edited 4 hours ago by Schizophonia

[LordFall]

@Schizophonia I think you're right that a lot of it is moral posturing but a lot of it is genuinely figuring out the proper way to live vs what is damaging. Analyzing the past is one of the main tools for us doing that. 

Moral relativism is also an interesting idea to deconstruct but on this earth is mostly false as things are only relative to an extent. 

[Schizophonia]

9 minutes ago, LordFall said:

@Schizophonia I think you're right that a lot of it is moral posturing but a lot of it is genuinely figuring out the proper way to live vs what is damaging. Analyzing the past is one of the main tools for us doing that. 

Moral relativism is also an interesting idea to deconstruct but on this earth is mostly false as things are only relative to an extent. 

The British Empire came about because it was in the interest of enough people.

Including among the colonized populations: the United Kingdom brought technology, infrastructure, and peace or unity. The unification of India, for example, was made possible by the British.

Edited 2 hours ago by Schizophonia

[Schizophonia]

Al Jazeera is an anti-western qatari agent of influence

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Schizophonia

[LordFall]

11 minutes ago, Schizophonia said:

The British Empire came about because it was in the interest of enough people.

Including among the colonized populations: the United Kingdom brought technology, infrastructure, and peace or unity. The unification of India, for example, was made possible by the British.

Sure, some evil things have a foundation of good, perhaps all evil things even. Deconstruction of evil is an interesting subject. 

Slavery benefits the recipients of it, it's a great business model. Doesn't mean it's not evil.

Perhaps we can define evil as causing more harm than good.