CELEBRATING IMPERIALISM

Elizabeth II, The Queen of the United Kingdom, represented a former imperial power, symbolized by the jewels in the crown. The territories taken in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries, all the products of theft by force of arms, imperialism, that is the Empire’s legacy.

The Queen watched the unraveling of that theft, and what remains is the remains of a fading empire. These are very rich people. The British Royal family is said to be the largest land owner in the country. The Royal family is worth maybe 30 billion or so, the jewels in the crown, stolen property.

There is no real value in celebrating grand theft on an epic scale. What was memorable about the great plantations of the American South, the slave economy, a product of European Imperialism, the owning human beings as property?

The Queen of England is dead. She represented a once ruthless imperial power that subjugated human rights, and ruled with an iron hand the people it conquered. She died very rich.

I heard today that a guy’s been arrested in the UK for saying, “Who elected the King?”

9/13/22