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Selling the idea of empire to Americans
“America first!” has again become a rallying cry in U.S. politics. Frankly, many of us thought that slogan had been relegated to the ash-heap of history given its record as a slogan for Nazi sympathizers pre-World War II who opposed President Roosevelt’s efforts to help the Allies.
The concept has some appeal. After all, why shouldn’t we take care of ourselves first rather than worrying about other countries?
Indeed, as George Carlin pointed out, American intervention in the World Wars was quite a departure from our prior approach. Carlin said our typical military intervention involved bombing “brown people.” Germany was worth fighting, however, because they were “cutting in on our action.”
As always, Carlin’s comedy was deeply insightful. We Americans always like to think of ourselves as the good guys. We don’t behave the way those old-world European empires did in subjugating other people for their own purposes, so we think. Instead, we “help” them with our interventions. While this belief might be self-satisfying, it also lends itself to resentments as we wonder why we are taking care of others rather than ourselves.
But think about who our allies are. The last great empire, of course, was Britain’s. But in the period running from the beginning of World War I until the end of World War II Britain…
