Implacable Fury (women and children first)
The demise of the imperial gentleman
When I was a child in the 1960s we were taught that we should behave like gentlemen. This meant a few things that might seem a little weird now.
Gentlemen were, of course, men, and in the language and perceptions of the time strong and powerful. So we were expected to:
- Protect the weak
- Not take advantage of the vulnerable
- Be kind and show interest in others
- Make sure things are done with a sense of fair play
All of these things were ultimately about using that strength to make society work for everybody and leaving no one behind. If you choose to see it that way, anyway.
Of course, the reality of Victorian and Edwardian men actually doing this while in fact robbing most of the world with their empire, and often protecting the weak meant forcing people (particularly if they had brown skins) into situations where these men could ride roughshod over their protectees’ actual needs. Think missionaries saving people who were perfectly fine before the missionaries arrived, for example. Then add on the theft of resources and so on. Try Orwell’s Burmese Days to get a flavour of what this was like.
