Category: English
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THE IMPERIALIST SELF-JUSTIFICATIONS
If, as it seems, the president of the United States takes orders from Israel, this makes Israel today’s arch-imperialist power, which is strange insofar as Israel apparently, alone, among history’s successive hegemonic powers, is uniquely lacking in an ideological justification with something approaching plausibility for external, and not just internal, consumption. To be God’s chosen people can surely be flattering and praiseworthy only to those who can see themselves as included in this category. Does this mean that such an imperialist power can rely only on blackmail to maintain its position?
The first of the European powers to seek hegemony over the New World was Portugal, whose supremacy was quickly challenged, with the assistance of the Dutch, by Spain.
Here is a timeline, presented by Robin Blackburn in his book “The Making of New World Slavery” (p.9)
“The theory of empire which the Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch and English came to expound appealed to God-given rights, but with interesting differences of emphasis. The Portuguese emphasized their rights as “discoverers”, not so much of the land as of the sea-routes between Europe and the newly discovered coast; Portuguese captains were required to register navigational details of their discoveries as well as marking them with a stone cross. The Spanish monarch claimed to rule the Americas by a God-given right of conquest , so long as the ceremony of the ‘Requirement’ demanding peaceful submission had been observed. Supposedly the Aztec and Inca rulers, having failed to respond and having obstructed the Spaniards’ free movements, had been conquered in a ‘just war’. The French believed the Spanish ‘Requirement’ and conquest were a mockery of Christian behavior and violated the God-given natural rights of the indigenous peoples. The French, therefore, appeared in the New World as friends and allies of the natives, and supposedly established colonies only with their unforced consent. The Dutch asserted their right not simply as navigators but principally as traders; in contrast to the Iberian powers they believed that there was a God-given natural right of all to sail the high seas in pursuit of trade, and to the better life that commerce brought with it. Finally, the English laid stress on the fact that their colonists, as cultivators or “planters”, were making better use of the land than native hunters-and-gatherers or colonial rivals, and thus enjoyed Divine sanction.
This bare summary simply picks out the most salient feature in each imperialist ideology; in practice the various powers constantly sought to imitate one another’s successes and learn from their mistakes. But their competitive success naturally depends upon the resources and institutions each could dispose of. While the Spanish approach, at one extreme, was highly dependent on state initiative and control, the English formula, at the other, critically depended upon the initiative and competence of the colonists themselves, albeit within the terms of some royal charter or bequest. “
Fast forward to today’s would-be appropriation of “the global South” by a coalition headed by Russia and China, the formerly Communist allies and rivals. Is it a new characteristic of this latest effort for the imposition of global hegemony that it no longer seeks to implant its own language but most probably contents itself with taking over the language and culture of its predecessor, as Rome largely did before it? One question among the many.
Postscript
This is a message from Yanis Varoufakis, economist, former finance minister of Greece, author of numerous bestselling books and contributor to the Australia Institute Press’s latest book, A Time for Bravery: What happens when Australia chooses courage?
Hear from me firsthand in conversation with Australia Institute Deputy Director Ebony Bennett on Zoom, Wednesday 4 March, 11 AM AEDT.
Comment from W.H.
I participated in this online discussion, posting two questions to Yanis in the chat.
1. What is your attitude to the proposal of Professor Ian Brighthope for secession of Western Australia? https://cairnsnews.org/2026/02/27/labor-government-treats-states-like-cash-cows-milking-resources-starving-their-potential-time-to-secede/
2. Do you feel that it would be good for you and Liz Gunn to collaborate? (Is Yanis even aware of the existence of LIz Gunn?) Neither of these questions were noticed, much less answered. Yanis did however manage to include a comment on the value of “vaccinations” as public health measures.
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Linguistic Politics
The flood of migrants from everywhere that is currently coming into Australia in an unmistakeable attempt to change the demographic character of the population appears destined to make Australia like a bad (even worse) copy of the European Union. Who has not seen the photograph (a photograph?) of the crowds in Melbourne outside Flinders Street station, where there is hardly a “white” face to be seen. But this situation can be turned on its head, particularly when one bears in mind Israel’s success in instituting Hebrew as the language of their state, in glaring contrast to e.g. Ireland’s failure to implant the Irish language as the lingua franca of that country.
The attempt to turn Ukraine into “the new bigger Israel” has apparently failed. Perhaps it is time to take some hints from one of the successful aspects of the colonization of Palestine: Israeli linguistic policy. Hebrew has been successfully introduced as the primary language of the Israeli state, displacing Yiddish, displacing or at least overshadowing, the national languages of the many countries from which Jewish immigrants have come to Israel.
In Australia the “white Australia policy”, which survived into the mid twentieth century, has been replaced at the official level by a quasi-religious idealization of Australia’s “first peoples”. This is due for toning down but in my opinion it is unlikely to “go back” to anything recognizable from the past.
As an Australian born in New South Wales but having lived in the 1970s for four years in Melbourne and having some slight contact with trade union activities, I noted that “first nation” Australians and others who identified with them were much friendlier to Mediterranean immigrants (primarily Greeks) than they were to Australians of Anglo-Celtic ancestry.
Check out this entry from the website of the young Greek-Australian Kanellos Patsios: https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1313
Kanellos recently also interviewed former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who lived for twelve years in Australia, has a second family in Australia, and regards Australia as his second homeland. Would Varoufakis (and indeed Kanellos) be interested in trying to make the Greek language “the Hebrew of Australia”? Canada is a dual-language state with English still in the topmost position. But English is much more suitable to be a winner’s Esperanto, as it were, than to be the language of a state. In today’s world English native-speakers who know no other language are at a distinct, and accelerating, disadvantage.
Postscript 28th February 2026
The Israeli attack on Iran has made it impossible for yesterday’s (Friday’s) proposed discussion focus to stand unaltered. Not that anything essential in the message needs alteration. All that cannot stand without modification is the presentation. The focus on Hebrew was not aimed at promoting Hebrew. Quite the opposite. It was something of a pre-emptive peace offering towards the Israelis who would not have wanted their government to do what it has just done. And yesterday’s message also targeted the Anglophone world, and that targeting stands.
The inabiity of thinking Israelis to influence the actions of their government further diminishes them.
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Dialogue with Australian writer Shelley Dark
6th February 2026
W.H. I have just been given your book “Son of Hydra” by my friend Vice-Admiral Heraklis Kalogerakis.
Shelley Dark: How lovely – please thank Vice-Admiral Kalogerakis for me. I hope you enjoy it.
W.H. I am starting it now. We are just over the road from the Voulgaris estate.
S.D. Wayne, do you know anything of the history of the Voulgaris estate? Or maybe an online reference? I would love to know more.
W.H. https://www.karapanou.com/the-story/#the-history-of-oikia
S.D. Thank you so much, Wayne. That is interesting, Wayne. Do you know when it was acquired? I didn’t include any mention of Aegina in “Son of Hydra” because I wasn’t sure when the land was acquired – whether the Sultan granted it to Giorgos along with the title of Bey and governor of Hydra or whether he bought it before he became governor, during his time in office or later, after leaving Hydra, under pressure from the Council.
But Ghikas would certainly have known about it.
W.H. I am not well informed about all this. You can ask Heraklis the relevant questions. But here is something I sent to Heraklis the day before yesterday and mentioned to him last night when we were together in a restaurant:
https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1349
There is much more to come out of this serendipity.
Shelley are you related to Eleanor Dark?
From Shelley Dark’s “Son of Hydra”, p. 382
“I have news of Greece,” says Ando. “From the newspapers. Would you like to hear?”
“You know I would!” I lift my voice.
“You know the new Greek king is a Bavarian – a Roman Catholic? His taxes are higher than the Sultan’s and the foreign debts remain. It’s a disaster – no constitution, no democracy. They sentenced our Hydriot war heroes to death and only pardoned them under pressure.’
Damos says, ‘Didn’t you hear that Ghikas’ friend, Spryidon Trikoupis, is petitioning the English king to pardon men who fought in the revolution?”
Bitterness heats my face. (thinks Ghikas) ‘He had a chance to do something when we were in Malta. He’s forgotten we exist.’
Ando continues. ‘Well, they shifted the government to Athens, still in rubble. And they speak French instead of Greek. They wear western dress.
I struggle to picture this.
‘Hydra is in a worse position than before the war.’
I place my mug on the table. ‘So, Ando, are you still Greek?’
‘Even if I were to be given a pardon, Ghika, I will stay in New South Wales. I sell my first crop of wheat this year. One day I will buy my own land.’
