A terrific conversation between two of my favorite Substack writers! Will and Zoomer Historian are both fascinating individuals and insightful thinkers. I couldn’t listen to the podcast in its entirety as I unfortunately didn’t have time so I had to skip around at places but I heard enough to get the gist of what they were saying. The falls of both Rhodesia in the early 1980s and the British Empire in the second half of the 20th century were tragedies of epic proportions. Rhodesia was the Breadbasket of Africa, a model state that was far ahead of most countries on the continent and provided an excellent quality of life for its citizens both black and white. The British Empire brought western and liberal ideals, democracy, capitalism, human rights, the rule of law, English Common Law, women’s rights, enfranchisement of historical marginalized or untouchable groups, expanded education, economic and educational opportunity, the English language, Christianity, free trade, fair taxation, good governance, improved healthcare, and higher living standards among other benefits wherever it went in the world.
Cecil Rhodes is a much maligned figure today. But he doesn’t deserve it. Warts and all, he was a great man and a hero who worked his way up from nothing to become a wealthy and successful mining magnate and politician. By the way, he wasn’t a racist he was a cultural supremacist. He believed Anglo-Saxon culture was superior to African culture. He did NOT believe whites were superior to blacks. In fact, he believed blacks who were educated should have the vote just like whites. The abolitionists in Virginia and British liberals in Rhodesia were both troublemakers who wanted radical change to come faster than it could. The abolitionists in Virginia failed to distinguish between the relatively benign nature slavery of the Old Dominion as compared to the brutal and sadistic nature of slavery in South Carolina or the Sugar Islands. They also failed to realize that completely abolishing slavery overnight wasn’t realistic or practical. British liberals failed to understand the complicated nature of the situation on the ground in Rhodesia. They were naive and bought the propaganda put out by ZANU and ZAPU that they were moderate freedom fighters bravely struggling against the racist white minority to set up a democracy of their own. This was total bull**** and British liberals fell for it hook, line and sinker. I would also add the example of useful idiot Garfield Todd.
Britain’s terrible performance in the War in the Pacific against the Japanese I think damaged the prestige of and caused a loss of faith in, the British Empire by colonial peoples and fanned the flames of nationalism all across the colonies. Britain and France too were both irrevocably damaged by the two world wars. After the Second World War they could longer had the money or political will to keep their empire. They just simply collapsed and out of that came the bloodshed and chaos of decolonization. India and Pakistan’s respective births were a bloodbath, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen all would be ruled by dictators and Rhodesia has to unilaterally declare independence to avoid the same fate. Ian Smith warts and all, was a good man who if he had been given time could’ve made the changes that the United States and Great Britain sought without the nation falling to Robert Mugabe and ZANU and becoming a failed state.
The British Empire provided poor and working class people in England and Scotland with opportunities galore to improve themselves and their lot in life. Now all that’s gone and there is nowhere for them up go. Mass immigration has been a disaster for the West but it’s days are numbered as Donald Trump got the ball rolling in the right direction here in the United States. European countries and even the EU are beginning to follow suit. Britain must kick Keir Starmer out of office, elect someone with sense and start reversing the damage done by mass immigration. Enoch Powell warned the British people this would happen in his famous Rivers of Blood Speech from 1968. He was smeared as a racist for it at the time, but today he was proven to have been 100% right. This is also why Clement Attlee and the Labour Party were reluctant to accept the passengers of the Windrush. Not because they were racist, but because they feared many more would follow them. The mass immigration of hundreds of thousands of black people to a nation that had always been predominately white would lead to violence and upheaval and create racial and cultural tensions. Britain was willing to take small numbers of folks from the colonies. But large numbers of black and brown people from a very different culture coming to Britain so quickly would be a disaster and they knew it.
Thank you very much for having me!
Thank you for coming on!
Convo of two greats. Will listen to this in the gym.
Awesome! Thank you
A terrific conversation between two of my favorite Substack writers! Will and Zoomer Historian are both fascinating individuals and insightful thinkers. I couldn’t listen to the podcast in its entirety as I unfortunately didn’t have time so I had to skip around at places but I heard enough to get the gist of what they were saying. The falls of both Rhodesia in the early 1980s and the British Empire in the second half of the 20th century were tragedies of epic proportions. Rhodesia was the Breadbasket of Africa, a model state that was far ahead of most countries on the continent and provided an excellent quality of life for its citizens both black and white. The British Empire brought western and liberal ideals, democracy, capitalism, human rights, the rule of law, English Common Law, women’s rights, enfranchisement of historical marginalized or untouchable groups, expanded education, economic and educational opportunity, the English language, Christianity, free trade, fair taxation, good governance, improved healthcare, and higher living standards among other benefits wherever it went in the world.
Cecil Rhodes is a much maligned figure today. But he doesn’t deserve it. Warts and all, he was a great man and a hero who worked his way up from nothing to become a wealthy and successful mining magnate and politician. By the way, he wasn’t a racist he was a cultural supremacist. He believed Anglo-Saxon culture was superior to African culture. He did NOT believe whites were superior to blacks. In fact, he believed blacks who were educated should have the vote just like whites. The abolitionists in Virginia and British liberals in Rhodesia were both troublemakers who wanted radical change to come faster than it could. The abolitionists in Virginia failed to distinguish between the relatively benign nature slavery of the Old Dominion as compared to the brutal and sadistic nature of slavery in South Carolina or the Sugar Islands. They also failed to realize that completely abolishing slavery overnight wasn’t realistic or practical. British liberals failed to understand the complicated nature of the situation on the ground in Rhodesia. They were naive and bought the propaganda put out by ZANU and ZAPU that they were moderate freedom fighters bravely struggling against the racist white minority to set up a democracy of their own. This was total bull**** and British liberals fell for it hook, line and sinker. I would also add the example of useful idiot Garfield Todd.
Britain’s terrible performance in the War in the Pacific against the Japanese I think damaged the prestige of and caused a loss of faith in, the British Empire by colonial peoples and fanned the flames of nationalism all across the colonies. Britain and France too were both irrevocably damaged by the two world wars. After the Second World War they could longer had the money or political will to keep their empire. They just simply collapsed and out of that came the bloodshed and chaos of decolonization. India and Pakistan’s respective births were a bloodbath, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen all would be ruled by dictators and Rhodesia has to unilaterally declare independence to avoid the same fate. Ian Smith warts and all, was a good man who if he had been given time could’ve made the changes that the United States and Great Britain sought without the nation falling to Robert Mugabe and ZANU and becoming a failed state.
The British Empire provided poor and working class people in England and Scotland with opportunities galore to improve themselves and their lot in life. Now all that’s gone and there is nowhere for them up go. Mass immigration has been a disaster for the West but it’s days are numbered as Donald Trump got the ball rolling in the right direction here in the United States. European countries and even the EU are beginning to follow suit. Britain must kick Keir Starmer out of office, elect someone with sense and start reversing the damage done by mass immigration. Enoch Powell warned the British people this would happen in his famous Rivers of Blood Speech from 1968. He was smeared as a racist for it at the time, but today he was proven to have been 100% right. This is also why Clement Attlee and the Labour Party were reluctant to accept the passengers of the Windrush. Not because they were racist, but because they feared many more would follow them. The mass immigration of hundreds of thousands of black people to a nation that had always been predominately white would lead to violence and upheaval and create racial and cultural tensions. Britain was willing to take small numbers of folks from the colonies. But large numbers of black and brown people from a very different culture coming to Britain so quickly would be a disaster and they knew it.
Thank you! Zoomer is fantastic
The collab we've all been waiting for
This is an excellent interview and very educational
Thank you!
The meeting of two titans.
Love this!! Thank you both