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Well we had influence. Mainly slipped away now. Mind you, most of the world is going bankrupt, including the USA. Then the smug nations like China & Saudi go down when the USA no longer can afford to buy from them. The bankers are still sucking all the money from the real economy & manipulating oil prices by manipulating conflict.
Cracking stuff – Chris, I’ve linked your blog over at PSL.
I think the reason many have a preoccupation with SE Asia is a certain, subconscious ‘imperial’ mentality, where we have nostalgic pictures of big grey Ironclads steaming from Fortress Singapore and engaging in gunboat diplomacy of the best kind. The fact is, that while we may want those halcyon days of British influence to return, they won’t. We must get our own house in order before we go barrelling off trying to relive the 1880s.
I’ve never experienced those “Halcyon Days” but believe that we play out part on the international stage – however small our voice may be, it comes with centuries of history and experience. We were the only hyper-power and between America (financed by China) and France we were levelled. We must have learned something in this?
Chris B touches on a key point about the nature of language: the more a word is used, the broader its meaning becomes. A word that gets adapted to too many different uses finally loses any meaning at all.
I think of it like a Venn Diagram: when someone uses a word they have a meaning in mind. The person (or people) who hear the word will have a different understanding of it. The word has meaning if there is enough overlap between the two circles the convey something useful from the speaker to the listener. If a word is used to do too many different jobs there becomes a risk that the circles do not overlap at all, and then nothing is conveyed except (possibly) a wrong impression.
So ironically the more a word gets used the less menaing it can convey!
Ever since its birth, Uncle Sam has had one enemy and swore to destroy it.. One way or another, they took 200 years to achieve it. By the mid seventies, they had achieved it. We have never recovered.
@Chris
Congrats and nice one.
And very good point on Africa. You’re right, Asia is pretty much a closed region to the UK militarily now.
Good stuff Chris.B. – verily subscribed.
@ Sir Humphrey,
Very much obliged. I only have three links on my blog reading list at the minute and yours was one of them.
@ Peter E,
Don’t get me started on language and its misuse. We’ll be here all day.
@ Observer,
Cheers mate,
@ The Other Chris,
Cheers again,
Brazil bombing Chile?
Tell me more :-)