NGOs function as corporate-funded missionaries serving imperial warfare

Evidence

For colonial administrators, however, the most problematic origins for the native petit bourgeoisie were the mission schools. From the fifteenth century and before, the missions had all along served as a part of the rationale for European colonialist and imperialist aspirations. Still, the correspondence between the ends of missionary work and the goals of imperialism had never been entirely true. For one, the missionaries themselves, in the case of English imperialism, were often recruited from colonized peoples: that is, Scots, Irish, and Welsh. Such soldiers for Christ could be often quite ambivalent about the colonial power. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 854 (#complicates, via linked claim)

As soon as Cromer started to rule Egypt for the sake of India, he lost his role of protector of “backward peoples” and could no longer sincerely believe that “the self-interest of the subject-races is the principal basis of the whole Imperial fabric.” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 547 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Humanitarians served as moral shield for the free-enterprise counter-attack on redistributive demands — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 438; NGOs function as imperial weapons in feminist guise in the Afghan war — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 311; Missionary philanthropy to the Middle East was funded by resource-extraction fortunes — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 135 (+14 more)

Broader Connections

• Missionary work and imperial aims never fully coincided #complicates (0.80) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 854
• Instrumental rule undercut imperialists’ sincere belief in their protective mission #complicates (0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 547