working my through...
N. Jessica Reifer. Hannah Arendt and Joseph Conrad: Memory, History and the Development of Totalitarian Evil in the Belgian Congo. 2007
which discusses "the role of nineteenth century imperialism on the emergence and development of totalitarian evil"
why you may ask? i think that when one tries to understand the present one needs to have a grasp of what has passed
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Reifer (p. 6)
In Conrad’s novel, we encounter glimpses of the genocides, mass murders, and ethnic conflicts that will become prevalent in the twentieth century -- atrocities committed by “civilized” European adventurers in “backward” countries like the Belgian Congo, colonial domination, native de-humanization, subordination, and extermination -- bringing not only serious abuses of human rights, but simultaneously new possibilities for evil.
we sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf - quotation by George Orwell?
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