uh, you know, probably the Belgians and uh, the Congo are an exception, but by and large, the major imperialist ventures have been
Yeh, I’m not interested in the mathematics of it, but what, what is … You have already conceded that it is not merely a conceptual difference, but… Yeh, but there are exceptions.
in the economic, uh, in the material interest, or in the perceived material interest… but, but, let me, let me finish. I say, I say it is. There are few exceptions.
Alright.
There are, th-…
OK, OK, let’s talk about the exceptions then. Hmm. Mm-hmm.
We’re, we’re… No, but the exceptions are at the difference. No, wait a minute, the exceptions are, for example, I mentioned the Belgians in the Congo.
There they didn’t have, they didn’t even pretend to have a civilizing mission. Mm-hmm.
There it was purely material self-interest, that uh; these are the exceptions. There are as far as I know no exceptions on the other side. There are, there are, uh, maybe I’ve left out a case of history, but as I see the history of colonialism, the great, massive cases, are cases where a powerful country was working in its perceived material self-interest
American Terror libretto © Jeffrey Lependorf 2008
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