The White Man’s Burden was the traditional belief that as the first race to reach a high level of civilization the white race was morally obligated to lift up the other races to this same level. This idea has never gone away. To even utter the words white man’s burden has become dangerous but the concept itself has always remained with us. The terminology is different and the means for lifting up the backward races has changed but the basic premise remains despite any and all claims to the contrary. The standard position is still that the white race is ahead and needs to lift the other races up to the same level. This is even the standard position among the backward peoples. Masking the idea by claiming the white race became advanced due to theft of resources from the third world is simply a salve for a wounded ego and treated as such by all involved. And whites are part of this all involved, they view this salve for the wounded ego as beneficial and a useful tool for fulfilling what in practical terms is the white man’s burden of old, the same idea but now surviving in disguise.
That one race or group can have a culture that is more advanced is taken for granted by all no matter how much it maybe denied in a specific context. The most obvious example would be the claim that the Arabs were once the most advanced people in the world and that Western advancement is derivative of this earlier Arab advancement. I love to laugh at the hypocrisy of all this. The West is only admitted to even be advanced for the purpose of giving the Arabs something to be proud of, proud of supposedly making the West advanced. Unless it is being stated for the purpose of giving the Arabs the credit the general position is that the West must never be admitted to be advanced. These kinds of contradictions are systematic and easily understood by all. The unwritten rules are not unknown rules, we all know them or we would not be able to so easily obey them. The unwritten but not unknown rule is to describe the world in terms which allow us to hold all identities in equal regard in our minds. We instinctively know this is the rule and effortlessly obey it. And so describe the West as being advanced when discussing the Arab influence on the West and never describe the West as advanced in any other conversation. If the rules were unknown they would not be so easy to follow.
Advancement does exist, we evolved in a world where all wealth comes from nature and now live in a world where almost all wealth comes from human labor. Advancement implies movement from a starting position. The starting position is the instincts we evolved in a world where all wealth comes from nature. This is where all cultures begin and where all individuals begin at birth. We advance by moving beyond that and making counter instinctive cultural progress so as to better succeed in a world where almost all wealth comes from human labor. This progress is the movement described as advancement and instinctive behavior is what we are advancing away from. This progress is an obvious reality and dominates our existence, the advantages of counter instinctive cultural progress seem like magic compared to the futile efforts of the backward. Backward also implies a direction of movement, the direction is back towards the starting point of instincts which evolved in a world where all wealth comes from nature. Belief that the white race is more advanced has never left us, never even diminished. Belief that the white race owes it to the backward races to lift them up to the same level has never left us, it has never even diminished. What has changed is the terminology, the methods, and the politics. But belief in the white man’s burden always remains.
There are several modern forms of the white man’s burden. One is pretend that the white race’s current wealth was once the property of the third world and needs to be returned. No one can truly believe in this. If in the past the white race was culturally equal it would never have been able to conquer and disposes other cultures at the same level. The idea that all the West’s wealth is stolen cannot be true and everyone knows it. But it serves the purpose of disguising the white man’s burden and it must be disguised as it is no longer acceptable to speak of it openly. There are other similar themes, such as blaming the third world’s poverty on colonialism or the cold war. They all serve the purpose of avoiding any talk of what makes a culture advanced. What makes a culture better at succeeding in a world where almost all wealth comes from human labor? This is the all important question. I personally do not believe in the white man’s burden in any form. But if it was real the burden would be to understand what makes a culture more successful and teach this knowledge to those who don’t know. Only this could be a real method of lifting up the backward peoples. Since it would work it is thoroughly avoided. What is preferred is something more heroic, less intellectual, something that would make a good movie. One of the common themes of attempts to lift up the backward people is that the lifter himself is always heroic. He’s not in a library reading books and trying to crack the code of culture. He’s building a bridge somewhere. Or a road. Maybe even teaching a class, but he’s never in a library.
After World War Two the common form of the white man’s burden could be termed the white man’s development burden. The International Monetary Fund was set up to aid the more advanced sections of the third world, mostly in Latin America. The World Bank was set up to aid the poorest parts of the third world, mostly in Africa. The IMF was intended to prop up weak local currencies so as to allow mid level countries mostly in South America to buy advanced factory equipment and set up a modern economy. Of course a weak currency aids exports and a strong currency aids luxury spending by the rich. So in practice the IMF was supporting luxury spending by the Latin American rich and they never paid back the loans and this started the endless Latin American debt crisis. And the Asian countries which never asked the IMF to prop up the value of their currency led the world in exports and quickly became as rich as any white country. How often did Asians want the IMF to make their currency stronger and thus hamper exporting? As far as I can tell. How often did Latin American countries want the IMF to make their currency stronger and thus aid luxury spending by the rich? Every single time.
The World Bank was no better. World Bank loans to African countries usually have a ten year grace period before interest payments need to be made and the interest is close to zero. The idea behind the ten year grace period is during that time the African country will rapidly grow due to the investment of World Bank money and so the burden of the interest payment will be lessened by the end of the grace period. But African economies don’t grow, they shrink. The advantages they accrued during colonialism, the infrastructure and development that went on then will only decay and disappear over time, including over the ten year grace period. Ten years later an African country will be even poorer. If the World Bank really wanted to help they would front load the interest payments, because with each passing year Africa becomes worse. So the white man’s development burden never worked.
It might have just been a Bush family thing but the white man’s intervention burden needs to be mentioned. Invade every country that doesn’t use toilet paper, that’ll show ‘em. Invading Germany to end twelve years of Nazi influence worked. Invading a country end twelve hundred years of Islamic influence will never work. It’s just not the same thing. The Nazis only got 33% of the vote when they came to power and that only happened because Stalin ordered the Communist not to enter into an anti Nazi coalition. The Treaty of Versailles limited the German Army to 100,000 men and when von Papen asked the micro army if they were strong enough to win a civil war they said no and so von Papen decided to make a deal with the Nazis. Germany could have avoided the Nazi win in normal circumstances and the Nazis only had twelve years to influence the German people. Invading and ending this influence belongs in one category, the category of the possible. Invading third countries and changing cultures over a millennia old is in a different category, the category of the impossible. The white man’s intervention burden was no greater a success than the white man’s development burden. George W. Chimp spent Seven Trillion Dollars in the mid east for nothing. Somewhere in Latin America a rich man is dreaming of just how much his currency could have been propped up if that money went to the IMF. He could have bought a Bentley.
This issue will never go away. The world will never stop wanting an answer, the world will never stop wanting the rest to catch up to the west. This is a permanent feature of the world. Anyone who thinks this was a fad is wrong. The white man’s burden theme is centuries old and has never gone away and never will. It is permanent so long as the gap between the West and the Rest exists. The desire to lift up the poor and the belief that this is the burden of the rich is a permanent feature of the human race. Anyone who think the world can be talked out of this is wrong. Anyone who thinks this is fad fails to see the underlying consistency between the various forms the white man’s burden has taken. Sometimes it involves missionaries converting them to Christianity, but sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it involves loans with a ten year grace period. Sometimes it involves propping up the local currency. Sometimes it involves the Bush family and then people start dying. Do not be fooled by the change in terminology or methods or politics. The white man’s burden is the white man’s burden is the white man’s burden. The essential features never change, the West must lift up the Rest. This never changes because it speaks to some unchangeable aspect of human nature. It will only end when the Rest have caught up. The white man’s burden affects all our lives, all our politics, it is inescapable. Even I haven’t escaped it. But what I have done is go to the library. I am not propping up currencies, invading ancient countries or loaning money. I am in the library. I will stay in the library until I am done.