Ash P4 T8 Edwardian Synthesis

Team Dragon:
Clair Fuller
Yee-Lum Mak
Alex Tranquada
Laurel Kitada
Jodi Shou
Per. 4

Edwardian Era Synthesis

            Violence as retribution is not moral except in the case of violence to prevent clear and present danger, such as in self-defense. Violence during war is viewed by society as justified—acts that would be considered atrocious outside of the context of wartime are considered grounds for a medal. However, the way society views violence during war fails to consider the morality of war itself. While violent acts within a war may be amoral, war itself is almost always immoral. Violence during present times is often framed as the only way to prevent a threat or to protect a person, institution, or ideal that is valued by our society. Whether the threat is real or imagined, and whether violence is indeed the only possible course of action, is highly debatable in most cases of modern “justified violence.”

            Rudyard Kipling’s poem The White Man’s Burden is an example of the way violence was justified as retribution during the Edwardian Era, particularly with regard to the massive British empire of the day. Although written in 1899, two years before the beginning of the Edwardian Era, The White Man’s Burden has become symbolic of the imperialist attitudes of that were present during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The colonization and “civilizing” of exotic lands during the height of the British Empire often came with tremendous cruelty towards the native citizens of the countries, but The White Man’s Burden presents these horrors as an appropriate response to the very existence of the “new-caught, sullen peoples.” Violence in this case is viewed as a justified retaliation against the native citizens of different races that lived in countries with traditions and cultures different from those of Western society. The White Man’s Burden frames violence against these peoples as a necessary response to their mere uncivilized presence on the face of the earth—the violence is provoked by their existence, less than any specific actions.