Empires always present themselves as exceptional and civilizing.

Evidence

Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn’t trust the evidence of one’s eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest mission civilizatrice. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 34

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: This parallels the structure of ‘mission civilizatrice’ claims — connects to the ADDENDUM article on sacrifice’s ‘stabilizer of stratified societies’ logic, and resonates with the crusades-era beard styles in the immodesty article where legitimacy is proclaimed through justification narratives.

Related

• Every empire legitimizes itself by denying imperial motives (similarity 0.82)
• Empires justify themselves by claiming superiority over prior empires (similarity 0.78)