this same principle applies today: the “talisman” of tech “advancement” peddled to us about AI, palantir, etc — at the end of the day it is a MYTH of power & superiority.
when an ethiopian king held british hostages in abyssinia, a british mp, henry rawlinson, told the house of commons in july 1867 that britain had to act in ethiopia to protect its “prestige”:
“Prestige may not be of paramount importance in Europe, but in the East, Sir, our whole position depends on it. It is a perfect fallacy to suppose we hold India by the sword. The foundation of our tenure, the talisman—so to speak—which enables 100,000 Englishmen to hold 150,000,000 of natives in subjection, is the belief in our unassailable power, in our inexhaustible resources; and any circumstance therefore which impairs that belief, which leads the Nations of the East to mistrust our superiority and to regard us as more nearly on an equality with themselves, inflicts a grievous shock on our political position.”
TRANSLATION: Don’t let the belief in another’s false power overtake you.
what i am reading:
The Prince and the Plunder – A book on how Britain took one boy and piles of treasures from Ethiopia