Owen Jones Stamps His Little Feet Over Japan Not Accepting Colonialism

It’s a standard trope of the left that colonialism is very bad, very bad indeed – unless an until someone damn foreigners starts doing something that lefties don’t like. As here with Owen Jones winding himself up into a fit of rhetoric over Japan’s likely resumption of commercial whaling. It’s entirely true hat there’s not much point to it, not even the Japanese, who will eat some pretty strange things, like whale meat and most of it is given away as a loss leader for the market that never does arrive. The reason for the continuance of it is somewhere between internal political pressures – support our brave whalers! – and more inscrutable cultural reasons.

But Owen, bless them cotton socks, insist that we must impose our cultural values upon those of the damn foreigners. How very dare those Yellow Peril not accord with the moral intuitions of Europeans?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The idea of Japan resuming commercial whaling is horrifying
Owen Jones[/perfectpullquote]

That’s fine and fair enough of course. It’s even the correct moral stance. I find your actions horrifying, I’m telling you so. Just as we should – but all too many don’t – insist to the Cuban government that locking up homosexuals is a gross violation of what we consider to be universal human rights. It’s this bit:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Japan’s actions should meet universal condemnation.[/perfectpullquote]

That’s us imposing our moral views on those foreigners, isn’t it? It’s ethical colonialism. Why isn’t this a bad thing?