Given how often the word “Imperialist” was abused in the last century, it is easy to forget that there was a time when Imperialism, by name, was a conscious policy of the supposedly enlightened British nation. They in fact built the largest empire the world has ever seen, carving out large sections of Africa and Asia, and of course controlling Canada, Australia, and numerous small countries like Belize around the world.
As I think about it, the patent Fascism of George Bernard Shaw and his disciple John Maynard Keynes is really just an outgrowth of the basic idea that some people know better than others, that some are just born SUPERIOR to others, and that the basic concept of the “White Man’s Burden” should be applied to social problems, and specifically to making all non-elites equal. The elites, of course, on this rendering, being superior, are not at all a part of the muddling masses under their direction.
Thus, there is no principled difference between a British Colonial officer directing “darkies” in Pakistan or the Sudan to do work he feels is in their best interest, and a member of what Keynes called the “Salariat” similarly interfering in and directing the lives of those he considers unequal to the task of directing their own life.
It is an identical arrogance, and moral dystopia.