Social Imperialism

I might  define "Social Imperialism" as when any larger society tries to impose it's values on another usually smaller society.

It caught my eye on page 15  in the March 10th 2014 Time magazine under the heading "Uganda" of a quote from "Yoweri Museveni" of Uganda.
"There's now an attempt at Social imperialism to impose social values."

What does that mean? I would say likely this relates to Uganda's laws regarding the death penalty for Homosexual behaviors.

So, in this case he would likely mean foreign nations trying to impose values based upon not harming homosexuals for their behavior as long as it is responsible and they are not recklessly transmitting Aids to each other in a criminal like way in secret.

However, it could be (I don't know for sure) that the whole society is so Anti-Gay in Uganda because of ignorance related to AIDS in the first place. After all more people have died of AIDS in Africa than anywhere else on earth because of a basic lack of education in the first place. (And the inability of many to afford or even find condoms) or to be convinced that they are useful to use in the first place.

So, in a society like that it is very likely that people are discriminated (especially males) against being homosexual to the point where ANY effeminate action might cause harm or death or even castration from birth. (I'm not sure about this).

In a society with a phobia against AIDS combined with not giving gay men equal rights to others (in other words no education no jobs etc) you then have the problem that they might not even be able to afford condoms in that kind of society even if they wanted one. So, this whole thing becomes a very very vicious cycle of death and mayhem. In that society based upon panic and ignorance and a basic lack of education you could see why that society might institute the death penalty for gay behavior.


One reason I'm bringing this up is the social imperialism brought to Ukraine by both Putin and the western world in the EU and the U.S. and Canada and like minded nations. You will have to admit (if you have traveled the world as much as me) that the U.S., Canada and the EU including Great Britain are very similar in thoughts and attitudes for the most part. However, Russia is completely different culturally and so is China than the EU, the U.S. Great Britain or Canada.

So, western social imperialism (EU, U.S., etc) and Eastern Social imperialism (Russia, China etc) look very different than each other.

To be grown up and realistic one must (hopefully) eventually move out from complete ethnocentrism like is found in the heartland of the U.S., Russia, and China and out into the real world where things are not just white or black but actually almost infinite shades of "gray" (American Spelling)ha ha.(the English Great Britain spelling would be "Grey".

So, we are presently seeing a clash of the brute force (traditional for hundreds of years in Russia) and a more English from of imperialism in the U.S. and Great Britain right now in their direct opposition to what Putin is doing.

What will be the result?

It's hard to say. But seeing both types of reactions to what is going in the world as very ethnocentric reactions to each other might be helpful to understand the whole thing in a historical perspective.

From a historic perspective both sides feel they are right and their points of view are the only points of view worth listening too. Sound Familiar?

However, in the end each side is like a lawyer presenting his or her case. It is not what is said but what is omitted by each that might be the most important things to know about this situation for everyone.