I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.
-Winston Churchill in his submission to the Palestine Commission 1937
I agree that the word "race" was poorly chosen; however, one must consider the time period in which this statement was made.
ReplyDeleteWinston should have used the term "culture" and would have left behind a quote that would have been absolutley factual.
It would be hard to argue that the colonists of Australia and America did not have a "stronger" culture, a "higher-grade" culture, and a "more worldy-wise" culture than the people they found in those places and others.
As you might guess, I firmly beleieve that no apology is necessary; although I will accept a "thank you" from these natives for things like penicillin, electricity, clean water, literature, human rights, democracy, and all the other little pleasures that have spawned from Western civilization
Warren, your reply reminded me of one of my favorite Ghandi quotes. He was asked what he thought of Western Civilization, and replied thusly: "I think it would be a very good idea". Winston Churchill, as you might imagine, did not like Ghandi very much. I selected the quote from Churchill to make a point about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It does not require much imagination to realize that he was fully in favor of displacing the Palestinians, in order to make room for the (mostly) European Jews that were agitating for a Jewish homeland.
ReplyDeleteThe birth of the state of Israel represents what is probably the final chapter of the colonization process that began over 500 years ago, and ultimately touched every corner of the world. With the notable exception of the Japanese and their Asian colonies, it was always the darker races giving way to the white race. And so it went in Palestine. Ironically enough however, Israel was born at precisely the same time that Europe was shedding it's own colonies. Rationalizations such as Churchill's were fast becoming passe, if not downright embarrassing.
I guess we should have left discovered lands in control of the natives who happened to be occupying the places when we arrived. They had accomplished so much with it.
ReplyDeleteAnd why is it assumed by the anti-western crowd that the natives that happened to be in various places when we arrived had any more right to the lands than the discoverers?
Who was in America before the American Indians? Theoretically they crossed an ice bridge and entered North America uninvited. Were there any people here at the time, if so, what happened to them?
Perhaps all the Europeans did was to subdue the brutal conquerers of an earlier time.
And don't get me started on Gandhi. A man who chose to ingest his own urine should not be lecturing anyone on the definition of "civilization".