So, there's gonna be a lot of stream of consciousness going on in this one, but let me see if I can assemble all of them into something coherent. This is just one small piece—part of an entire worldview I'm working out. Not my invention. I'm not exclusive in thinking this way, but I'm not finding a lot of people completely on my side,… yet.
I do want to believe there's a number of people thinking like this—about how the world should be from first principles. But let me start with something concrete—the British Empire.
The puzzle that won't let go
People from the Indian subcontinent—I've heard them on podcasts, read their writings—they always look at their size on the map. Their population strength. Then they look at Britain. Tiny Britain on the map in Europe. How tiny that country is.
And it conquered such a huge capacity of people. Such a large mass of people. Not just India—almost the entire Africa. Plus parts of North America. Plus wherever else. Who could count anything under the sunset?
What the fuck did they have? Is it exceptionalism? Intelligence? The right kind of intelligence applied the wrong way?
And who inspired such application of intelligence? Who drove them into believing this was how to use their exceptionalism? Exceptionalism?
The mechanics of domination
Because imagine—the British intelligence that had such leverage over such huge numbers of people in such dispersed areas. India on one side, Africa on another, North America on yet another. They covered the earth.
They applied their intelligence this way—
Make the people who are big, small.
Make them feel stupid.
Make them feel not enough.
Make them feel dependent on you.
Make them look at you as God.
And the moment you register that in their traditions there's always them trying to know the Supreme Being. You plug into that. Cause divisions, misunderstandings, confusions. Conflict their language, their understanding—so they defer to you for clearer understanding. Gods of the earth. Gods of men.
But what you give back isn't clearer understanding. It's muddled thinking that makes them completely subject to you. God of men.
Information warfare. Misinformation as weapon. And then—just so happened—your intelligence also developed superior firepower. Pound, pound, pound. Show the carnage you're capable of. "This is what we'll do if you don't succumb."
And so they succumb. And you dominate further. God of men.
Can we stomach the lesson?
So if I say we should study how Britain—such a small group of men (yes, males with pricks)—conquered and subjected large groups to near-total slavery for hundreds of years... what are we going to learn?
Are we going to stomach all the barbarity and still pick something of virtue out of it? Can we say, "Oh, but this here is how you manage people to bring them up"?
It's like learning the bad stuff and applying it to do good stuff. Is that something? A training in contrast. In incongruity. Is that even possible?
Can I stomach the barbarity of British domination—of India, Africa, North America—but learn something about how to manage large groups of people? Work with humanity to bring us up out of dust and ashes? To elevate us? Then equalize everyone?
The sophistication trap
Because today they all tend to look up to Britain, right? They all want to go to England. Study in London. Be there somehow.
That level of sophistication is enviable. And if Britain knew that, wanted that sophistication—could they have carried everybody along? Could they have worked their masterpiece so everybody they touched could have been elevated?
Is there a lesson out of this carnage? This great evil called the British Empire? Or have we been so backwarded—if there's such a word—so cast behind that there's no catching up?
The missing pieces
Does Britain still have all the answers? Or in their attempt to be the only ones at the top, did they hide them? Have they lied to us—in science, in religion, everywhere? Is it difficult for us to catch what's real and pick up, catch up, maybe get ahead or at least be on the same level?
They authored most of these books. Can we catch where they tried to lie? Where they hid something? Can we figure it out?
This would be some nice exploration to do. But I believe I already know a lot without digging further into British intelligence.
The world order I see
I believe—I feel—I know I have something. A way. An order that should work for humanity. I'm not original with this. Not exclusive. I believe it's shared by many, but we're yet to find ourselves as one.
Hopefully, when we do find ourselves, we become a model others copy. Hopefully it happens in our lifetimes, so before we die, enough others have picked it up. Bit by bit, as humanity continues, it gets to a point of true order. What it should be.
I may not be alive to see it, but the legacy would be left. For any of us who share these ideals, there would be legacy.
And who knows what comes afterward?
Right?
The invitation stands
You don't like empire. I don’t. A detestable thing. You don't like that the British Empire was so evil. They all are. But the British Empire? The most evil of all. The cause of modern wars, divisions—Pakistan/Bangladesh/India, North/South Korea, North/South Vietnam, North/South Nigeria. South African blacks versus whites (how come there are whites from southern Africa?).
But you gotta be curious. You gotta ask—what can we learn?
Not to worship the authors. Not to repeat the barbarity. But to study the mechanics. Strip out the cruelty. Test what's left. Apply it to a new framework—one that carries everyone along.
Could England have been a model of shared prosperity instead of a factory of modern wars? If they could have, why didn't they? Or does power only work when applied evilly? Wait, it’s called power?
These are brutal questions. But if we don't ask them, if we don't dig into the data buried beneath the carnage... how do we build something better?
This is my piece of the puzzle. One small piece of thinking about empires—British and every other that came before or after. About power and its application. About whether we can learn from evil to build good.
I don't have all the answers. But I know this—true civilization shouldn't be measured by the borders we bind, but by the lives we lift. O, but there’s borders…
Everywhere.