Imperialism...?

The White Man's Burden is a poem by Rudyard Kipling. The poem is about imperialism, and how he is against such an occurance. Apparently, "The racialized notion of the 'White Man's burden' became a euphemism for imperialism, and many anti-imperialists couched their opposition in reaction to the phrase."

Kipling uses pretty intense phrases to get across his distain for imperialism, calling the event "half devil and half child" among other things. The metaphors he uses, though simple, do strike some sort of emotion in the reader. Basically he is calling US imperalism childish, and the US blaming others when things are going wrong. Not acting like a man. The Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, 1899 talks about actual issues with imperialism the US is dealing with, like trying to instill government in the Phillippines, with a large number of Filipinos getting slaughtered in this process.

Similar to the Douglass reading, a lot of what both Kipling and the Anti-Imperialist league is saying is in regards to protecting liberty and freedoms. Those are the basic notions, needs for living. I think even today we strive intensely to have those things, but in the process, our government often takes those things away from others. Such as the Iraq war situation. I claim my ignorance on the topic, so I'm not even going to pretend like I always know what I am talking about. But honestly, how is it fair to take control of other countries, when we can barely take care of ourselves? I guess a mini-parallel in regards to loss of liberty would be the Phillippine imperialism. If liberty is held on such a pedestal, and has been for centuries, then shouldn't be more attentive to it? When things are instilled that take away our freedoms, there is an uproar, a major disagreement. And we do all we can to get everything back into a comfortable place.

But what happens when we can't find that comfortable place? And more and more gets stripped away? I guess we'll have to wait and see what the future holds...