Imperialism Quotes

“It's evident now, obvious in retrospect as the proof of root-two's irrationality, that these world superpowers are neither infallible, nor superior. They're nothing, not without a brutally enforced relativity. An organized, systematic brutality that their soft and sagging children can scarcely stomach - won't even acknowledge. Yet cling to as truth. There was never any absolute, no decree from God. Just viscous, random chance. And then, compounding.”
― Natasha Brown, Assembly

“Международная программа Россіи и международная программа Совѣтовъ прямо противоположны. И потому патріотически солидаризоваться съ одержимыми коммунистами — безумно и безотвѣтственно. Всѣ ихъ планы, затѣи и войны ничего Россіи не принесутъ, кромѣ крови, муки, вымиранія, униженій, разоренія, всеобщей ненависти и всеобщей мести. Они не только не возвеличатъ и не обогатятъ Россію, но могутъ привести къ ея раздѣленію и распаденію, къ утратѣ ею ея исконныхъ, исторически и государственно безспорныхъ вотчинъ.”
― Иван Ильин, Советский Союз - не Россия

“We usually think of empires as violent undertakings. As Frantz Fanon observed in the 1960s, the process of conquering and governing a colony is, by definition, violent. But in the context of global capitalism, empire has a more expansive meaning. Capitalist empires are not simply the states capable of winning the most wars; they are the command centers of the capitalist world system. Their corporations are the largest and most powerful multinationals, extracting profits from all corners of the globe and sucking them back to the imperial core. Their financial institutions are some of the most important nodes in the networks of global finance. The priorities of their governments are forcefully communicated to -and sometimes enforced upon- less powerful states.

In fact, at the global level it is much easier to see the equivalence between economic and political power than it is domestically. The power of US businesses abroad is maintained through an international order that prioritizes the interests of US capital, promulgated by the US government and its allies. The power of US finance rests on the central role played by the dollar as the global reserve currency, which is it self a function of American military, political, and economic might. American military power, meanwhile, stems from and helps to reinforce the power of a web of military contractors, weapons manufacturers, and research hubs that provide the expertise and equipment needed to maintain its supremacy. In certain parts of the world, as in Iraq after its invasion, the US government has rules through private corporations like Halliburton.

Empire is, then, about more than formal colonization -it refers to all the processes through which the world's most powerful capitalist institutions plan who gets what at the level of the world economy. Throughout history, this imperial power has often been exercised through horrendous acts of violence that have warped the development of entire societies for decades. But today, it is often exerted in far more covert ways, such as through the secretive system of international courts or international financial institutions imposing rigid conditions on countries trying to access emergency lending.”
― Grace Blakeley

“Однією з причин невдач росіян в асиміляції національних меншин був їхній непомірний апетит до поглинання територій; ці території виявилися завеликими, щоб відносно слабо розвинена культура змогла їх поглинути і зробити своїми. Найбільше російській культурі бракувало ґрунтовної філософської бази, яку мав і яку використовував Захід для виправдання своїх «цивілізаційних» завоювань. Грубо кажучи, росіяни в XIX столітті накопичили велику частину того, що можна метафорично описати як мармури Елґіна (колекція античних фігур з Парфенону, вивезена і продана Британському музею лордом Елґіном), і в них зʼявилося кілька геніальних письменників, які привели російську літературу до найулюбленіших літератур світу; водночас філософія в Росії була і є на стадії формування...”
― Ewa M. Thompson, Трубадури імперії: Російська література і колоніалізм

“I don't incidentally suggest that the deceit is conscious. Much more likely, it's just the enormous power of conformity to convention, to what Gramsci called hegemonic "common sense." Some ideas are not even rejected; they are unthinkable. Like the idea that US aggression is aggression; it can only be "a mistake," "a tragic error," "a strategic blunder." I also don't want to suggest this is "American exceptionalism." It's hard to find an exception to the practice in the history of imperialism.”
― Noam Chomsky, The Precipice: Neoliberalism, the Pandemic, and the Urgent Need for Radical Change

“The Westerner has been able move forward in ordered steps, while we have met superior civilization and have had to surrender to it, and we have had to leave a road we have followed for thousands of years. The missteps and inconveniences this has caused have, I think, been many. If we had been left alone we might not be much further now in a material way than we were five hundred years ago. Even now in the Indian and Chinese countryside life no doubt goes on much as it did when Buddha and Confucius were alive. But we would have gone only in a direction that suited us. We would have gone ahead very slowly, and yet it is not impossible that we would one day have discovered our own substitute for the trolley, the radio, the airplane of today. They would have been no borrowed gadgets, they would have been the tools of our culture, suited to us.”
― Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows

“До ще більшої плутанини призвело те, що у XVIII столітті у вжиток увійшов прикметник «российский» — як похідний від слова «Россия», яка на той час була імперією. «Российский» інколи вживався як синонім слова «русский» в офіційних промовах, однак Єкатєріна II заохочувала до його вживання стосовно неросійських народів імперії. Отже, слово «русский» стосувалося росіян, тоді як «российский» — як росіян, так і інших підданих імперії, — звідси й назва «Российская империя» або, у пострадянський період, «Российская Федерация». У сучасній російській мові термін «российский», як і раніше, стосується росіян, а також тих народів Російської Федерації, які не є росіянами, тоді як термін «русский» — лише росіян. Однак обидва слова перекладаються англійською мовою як «Russian». Оскільки ці слова мають однакове походження, може здаватися, що термін «российский» позначає ніби «неповних» росіян; росіян у процесі становлення; осіб, які в певний природний спосіб повʼязані з Росією. Колоніальна природа імперії маскується в такий спосіб лінгвістичною маніпуляцією.”
― Ewa M. Thompson, Трубадури імперії: Російська література і колоніалізм

“Everything now is profit. I am what we’ve always been to the empire: pure, fucking profit. A natural resource to exploit and exploit, denigrate, and exploit.”
― Natasha Brown, Assembly

“99% of the world's human rights violations are manufactured by the west.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“The Great Firewall (The Sonnet)

99% of the world's human rights
violations are manufactured by the west,
either directly or retrospectively.
No wonder, China is so strict about limiting
western influence on the national psyche!

China is right to ban our entire western internet,
Wouldn't you do the same if you had the might!
If you were self sufficient enough, wouldn't you do
the same to the moron whose biggest contribution
to the world has been genocide, partisan, apartheid!

Every parent tries their best to keep
their children away from bad influence.
You ain't qualified to speak of liberty
till you take off your western glasses.

Political correctness is not social justice,
any more than bigoted boneheadedness is.
Moral sensitivity is just mark of judgmentality,
till we disinfect ourselves from our westernness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“اسرائيل تكاد تبدو اليوم وكأنها أمريكا في الشرق الأوسط، أو الولاية الحادية والخمسون من الولايات المتحدة كما قيل، أو على الأقل قاعدة بدرجة دولة والا أن كل طاقمها من اليهود، وأيا ما كان، فلا شك أن اسرائيل هي أخطر تحديات الاستعمار في التاريخ العربي، ولعلها أعلى مراحله في الوطن العربي، بمثل ما أن الصهيونية العالمية هي أعلى مراحل الإمبريالية العالمية”
― جمال حمدان, استراتيجية الاستعمار والتحرير

“Вѣдь нужно быть законченнымъ слѣпцомъ, чтобы воображать, будто совѣтская оккупація или инфильтрація сдѣлала Русское національное государство чтимымъ или «популярнымъ» въ Финляндіи, Эстоніи, Латвіи, Литвѣ, Польшѣ, Галиціи, Австріи, Германіи, Чехіи, Венгріи, Румыніи, Болгаріи, Югославіи, Албаніи и Греціи; будто солдатскія изнасилованія женщинъ, чекистскіе аресты, увозы и казни, насажденіе политическаго доносительства, избіенія и разстрѣлы лидеровъ крестьянской и либеральной оппозиціи въ этихъ странахъ, пытки въ тюрьмахъ, концлагеря, фальшивыя голосованія, а также преднамѣренная повсемѣстная инфляція, всѣ эти имущественные передѣлы, конфискаціи и соціализаціи — привѣтствуются этими несчастными народами, какъ «заря свободы» или какъ «истинная демократія», какъ «желанные дары» «великой Россіи»... На самомъ же дѣлѣ въ этихъ странахъ сѣется дьявольское сѣмя и растетъ ненависть къ національной Россіи.”
― Иван Ильин, Советский Союз - не Россия

“Arabi Azadi Ashiqui
(The Sonnet)

The more you persecute a certain community,
the more you'll find me your fiercest enemy.
Defending that community with my last breath,
I shall remind you of your own utter futility.

The more you dehumanize a certain people,
more you'll find me your uncorrupt impediment.
The people will be safe, even if I'm annihilated -
In the process, world will witness your impotence.

More you criminalize a certain community,
more in my eyes you lose right to dignity.
Honor is earned through behavior, not by
excuse of throne, scripture or nationality.

Systemically propagate fear all you want -
In the end, you're at mercy of my civilian judgment.
Belonging is my bible, conscience is my koran -
Behave like a bully, and I'm your celestial guardian.

Whenever intolerance raises its fangs,
hiding behind menorah, saffron or crucifix,
Every Samaritan must become Samurai -
Every Civilian - Arabi, Azadi, Ashiqui!”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“Whenever intolerance raises its fangs,
hiding behind menorah, saffron or crucifix,
Every Samaritan must become Samurai -
Every Civilian - Arabi, Azadi, Ashiqui!”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“Honor is earned through behavior, not by excuse of throne, scripture or nationality.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“Lycka är inte en kejserlig handelsvara,
Frihet är ingen kolonisatörs arvegods.
Glädje är ingen fanatikers förfäders arv,
Jorden är inte en sionistisk egendom.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Världsviking: Gudomlig Poesi

“Sieg Heil and the rest (Sonnet 1162)

Some shout Sieg Heil,
Some shout Jai Hind.
Some Star Spangled Banner,
Others God save the fiend.

Only the language differs,
Jungliness remains the same.
Even in an integrating world,
Some maintain the habits lame.

Once upon a time,
they might have had some value.
Today they are just anachronism,
Kept alive by apes without clue.

If you are still enraged,
how dare I compare
Sieg Heil with the rest!
Study the history unvarnished -
behind every tribal salute
you'll find a holocaust equivalent.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“We gotta fight on the beaches,
We gotta fight on human grounds.
This time we gotta fight as human,
not as puppets to colonial clowns.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“I hated the imperialism I was serving with a bitterness which I probably cannot make clear. In the free air of England that kind of thing is not fully intelligible. In order to hate imperialism, you have got to be part of it. Seen from the outside the British rule in India appears—indeed, it is—benevolent and even necessary. . . . But it is not possible to be a part of such a system without recognizing it as an unjustifiable tyranny.”
― George Orwell

“There was one problem with this tactic. The US claimed to be a democratic and anti-imperialist nation. It had spent much of the early twentieth century encouraging other empires to grant independence to their colonies. US anti-imperialism was, of course, entirely self-interested and mostly directed toward other states. After all, how could US corporations dominate the rest of the world if whole swathes of it were guarded by imperial powers?”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“The US colonization of the Philippines was brutal, but it did not end with formal independence. The Philippines has existed in a state of what Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's independence leader, referred to as 'neocolonialism': a condition in which a state is, 'in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty,' but 'in reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from the outside.' This was a familiar situation for many newly independent nations.
...
For decades, the development of the Philippines was hampered by collusion between the US, international institutions, domestic capitalists, and a corrupt political class, which together deprived Filipinos of basic human rights to ensure the country would remain a haven for international capital. Bello himself was referred to the situation faced by the Philippines after independence as neocolonial.”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“Ultimately, the US state took it upon itself to ensure that no part of the world could close its doors to international investment. This desire to keep the world 'open' to capital, rather than overaccumulation or a struggle for resources, is what explains so many of America's imperial escapades in recent decades.”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“Yet newly independent states were told they would have to adhere to free trade policies if they wanted to 'catch up' with the rest of the world. These countries were fed the lie that Britain and America had grown rich through free trade, and that if they only opened up their markets to international competition, they would too. Instead, these states found their national economies were dominated by corporations that had been protected by imperialist nations now preaching the benefits of the free market. This was the 'imperialism of free trade'.”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“The fusion of economics and politics is a critical part of this model and is something early liberal theorists missed. States consistently seek to protect 'their' capitalists all over the world. Whether in the form of taxation, trade policy, or foreign policy, capitalists always rely on politicians to provide them with opportunities for profit-making abroad. Lenin, who in 1917 wrote that imperialism was the 'highest stage' of capitalism, realized that this fusion of state and corporate power would make it even harder for poor states to catch up with rich ones.

While this fusion of corporate and political power is largely hidden within modern capitalist economies, historically it was understood to be a central component of imperial power. We have already seen how early capitalist states sought to govern the world economy through corporate sovereigns like the East India Company. The Nazi Party also encouraged the creation of 'trusts, combines and cartels' on the basis that doing so would support the German state's imperial power at home and abroad. Unions, and any other threats to corporate power, were destroyed, and a law was passed to 'force industries to form cartels where none existed.' Unchecked corporate power -fused with that of the state- was a key component of Nazism.”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“While claiming a grand civilizing mission to end poverty and promote development, rich countries have in fact underdeveloped the rest of the world in order to enrich themselves. In his book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney argues forcefully that the wealth of the rich economies comes through the exploitation of poor ones, through 'trade, colonial domination, and capitalist investment.;' The exploitation of the Global South is a cornerstone of production in the Global North, a relationship that yields great profit for corporations headquartered in countries that used to colonize much of the planet.”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“But, with a few carefully chosen exceptions, the US wouldn't let them. If poor states had been allowed to industrialize, they would have been harder to exploit. As a result, when peripheral countries did try to industrialize in the mid-twentieth century, powerful states, corporations, and international institutions worked together to undermine these efforts. As home to the most powerful capitalists in the world, the responsibility for protecting the system fell primarily to the United States, which worked tirelessly over subsequent decades to maintain the hierarchy of global capitalism and its own position at the apex.”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“The US government wanted to send a message to poor and downtrodden people around the world: they could not hope to resist the power of American capitalism. Such a show of force was necessary because many were already trying to do so.”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“The strategies used in Indonesia were replicated in socialist states all over the world, with the active or passive support of the United States. From Brazil to Chile, anti-communists began talking openly about their own 'Jakarta plans.' Bevins is clear about what this meant: 'the state-organized extermination of civilians who opposed the construction of capitalist authoritarian regimes loyal to the United States.' The next testing ground for the Jakarta Method would be Latin America, where hundreds of thousands of people would be killed or 'disappeared' in the name of anti-communism over the subsequent decades.

At home, the US government justified these actions -where they were revealed to the public- by claiming that it was acting to protect 'freedom' by ridding the world of the communist threat. The actions taken to promote this 'freedom' often involved literally exterminating communists and socialists who dared resist the power of the world's foremost empire. One historian found that the number of victims of US-backed violence in Latin America 'vastly exceeded' the number of people killed in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc over the same period.

Why did the world's foremost imperial power find it necessary to unleash such extreme violence on some of the poorest people on the planet? To protect the structure of the capitalist world system. had states in the Global South been allowed to band together, resist the power of the rich world, and forge their own development paths, these countries would have been far harder to exploit. The rich world needed the poor countries to remain scattered and underdeveloped global capitalism could not function were they to unite.”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“As should be clear from the examples outline in this chapter, the US military is the cornerstone of its power as an imperial planner. US imperialism is fundamentally about protecting the unequal structure of the capitalist world system and preventing the emergence of potential rivals to this system. Private actors also benefit handsomely from America's role as the guardian of global capitalism, and this fusion of public and private interests is what makes the US military-industrial complex so enduring.

But the exercise of imperial power is about more than brute force. As we have seen, the structure of the world economy privileges the interests of capital, concentrated in the core, over workers, concentrated in the periphery. This system does not reproduce itself on its own; it must be protected and upheld by both the force of the US state and the legal and political institutions it promulgates. Where poor countries have not been subjugated to the power of capital by force, as in Guatemala, Indonesia, and Iraq, they have been given little choice other than to submit voluntarily.”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“The neoliberals have always portrayed their proposals as attempts to embed freedom and liberal democracy. And yet, when people have not chosen the right outcome, neoliberal policies have been forced upon them anyways. The divide between authoritarian statist societies and democratic market ones, which was emphasized by thinkers like Hayek, turns out not to be much of a divide at all. Whether by frustrating democracy, or by supporting authoritarianism, capital tends to find a way to bend the state - and the market- to its will.

In fact, all over the world, neoliberal thinkers have supported authoritarian regimes in the name of 'freedom”
― Grace Blakeley, Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom