Hollow prestige without real superiority arose in Hellenic imperial decline

Evidence

Might imperial dispositions indeed have at their core such a “vital lie”? This is not the colossal lie that Arendt describes for Eichmann and the political engineers of Nazi Germany. Rather it is a “lie for life,” not about religious gods but secular ones, about political myths, empire’s “noble” projects, as Valck called them, and the do-good deeds of those who carried them out. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1419 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Declining ex-imperial societies scapegoat minorities to explain their problems; Imperial governance rests on a vital lie about empire’s noble projects — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1419

Related

• Imperial governance rests on a vital lie about empire’s noble projects (similarity 0.84)
• Imperial agents find satisfaction in pure functioning, not in achieved ends (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Imperial governance rests on a vital lie about empire’s noble projects #expands (0.78) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1419
• Declining ex-imperial societies scapegoat minorities to explain their problems #expands (0.72)