Complicity

Abstract

Eventually the facts trickled out. Of course, educated Frenchmen knew roughly, or even quite precisely, by what means their colonies were captured and administered. Just as educated Frenchmen in the 1950s and 1960s knew what their troops were up to in Vietnam and Algeria. Just as educated Russians in the 1980s knew what their troops did in Afghanistan, and educated South Africans and Americans during the same period knew what their "auxiliaries" were doing in Mozambique and Central America respectively. Just as educated Europeans today know how children die when the whip of debt whistles over poor countries. It is not knowledge that is lacking. The educated general public has always largely known what outrages have been committed and are being committed in the name of Progress, Civilization, Socialism, Democracy, and the Market ... You already know that. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions. © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.