Empire

Some Hints on Reading to Those Interested to Know How This Popular British Historian Depicts the Contemporary World as Heritage of the British Empire:



1. One of the possible manners of reading this book may be to enjoy it vis-a-vis "Civilization - the West and the Rest", another book of the author which, though admittedly the Western world would now seem to be facing a downfall, brings into relief the 6 factors (advantages to him) of this civilization:

1)competition, 2)science, 3)property (proprietorship), 4)medicine, 5) consumption, 6)work.



2. According to the basic view of "Empire", the British Empire acted as midwife to modernity that has dominated, and has been followed by, the entire world, and the United States stands on the brink of a new era of imperial power, based once again on economic and military supremacy.



3. Based on the above premisses, readers may be able to consult some other points for discussion. For example:



a) What is the ultimate goal of civilization and its prosperity? Do you seriously believe this manner, economic or politic, of competition is truly 'effective' - even on the brink of autodestruction of humanity due to a possible world atomic war, environmental breakdown, dumbing down by mass media, propaganda, public education, etc.?



　b) In fact, the casualities in the 20 century are by far the most numerous in history. And there has never been a time in history when the so-called 'civilized men' face the risk of total extinction due to their own greed and insanity.

Yet the author totally ignores the actual state of U.S. after 9.11, as well as the reason so many wars have been breaking out throughout the last centuries owing to the so-called 'merchants of death' reputed to have profited from endless wars.



c) Speaking of the Chinese culture, the author ignores the ancient wisdoms (Eastern and Greek) of the Axial Age (Jaspers), according to which no economic pursuit destroying the harmony of a whole society is permissible.