Imperial administrators regard subject nations merely as means to higher ends
Evidence
The outstanding similarity between Rhodes’s rule in South Africa and Cromer’s domination of Egypt was that both regarded the countries not as desirable ends in themselves but merely as means for some supposedly higher purpose. They were similar therefore in their indifference and aloofness, in their genuine lack of interest in their subjects, an attitude which differed as much from the cruelty and arbitrariness of native despots in Asia as from the exploiting carelessness of conquerors, or the insane and anarchic oppression of one race tribe through another. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 547
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Arendt defines imperial aloofness against four other modes of domination (native despotism, careless conquest, racial oppression) — a useful taxonomy for distinguishing imperial from other power forms.