'My country did it first and best'
as used to describe some generous act
towards somebody that need not have been done
but nonetheless when it was, it was a service to the future.
The ending of slavery comes to mind,
as an example of kind of virtuous action
that modern governments of countries
that once gloried in owning slaves,
and worked them to death in its empire*
like to hide behind, as if their model
of corporate finance and exploitation
was now irreversibly reformed.
Always the cliche is of the lone crusader
who fights on and on to free the slaves
until the powers that be take on his cause,
and change the laws of the land
without first looking at their bank balance.
Was there ever a bigger cliche
that disguised an even bigger lie?
If there was I don't know it.
*every empire in history has used slaves
The Romans, Egyptians, Greeks,
and the Babylonians, all had slaves
and they all built their empires
and maintained their slave stocks
from defeating smaller countries
and that nomadic tribes who had no land at all.
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