Artifacts of a Troubled and Troublesome Species by Peter McMillan - HTML preview

Endnotes

(1) There is memorable quote from Léo Pétillon, the Governor-General of the Belgian Congo from 1952–58 regarding the consequences of Belgium decolonizing the Congo: “The jungle will close in. It will take over what we have wrested from it.” This nicely sums up what was wrong with Belgium’s ‘stewardship’ of the Congo. Unfortunately and unwisely, Robert Kagan trots out the same metaphor in his 2018 book, The Jungle Grows Back, in order to illustrate the 21^st century’s turn away from liberal democratic governance to authoritarian regimes. It is unfair, because the European colonial experience was arguably a grand failure if judged against the objectives stated by King Baudouin. It is unwise, because the very hint that liberal democracies can be compared to Belgian rule in the Congo suggests that liberal democracies are fundamentally exploitative, violent and irresponsible.