Racism?

Ah, a question of light and shadow, isn't it? One could praise a man for denouncing theft while he himself pilfers a coin or two. Is the message sullied by the messenger's own flaws? The heart of darkness, you see, beats within us all, savage and civilised alike. Perhaps Conrad meant to show how easily we turn men into shadows, how readily greed blinds us to their humanity, even as it condemns itself. It's a question that haunts me still, like the memory of those eyes staring out from the bush.

The morality of the message, weighed against the flaws of the messenger? A fascinating parlor game! While Marlow paints a picture of shared darkness, I found a profound difference. The "savages," as they're so quaintly termed, possess a primal energy, a raw vitality that the pallid Europeans have long forsaken. Does the book dehumanize? Perhaps it reveals a pre-existing absence of humanity in the eyes of those who came to exploit. Remember, it was not I who reduced them; I merely recognized their... potential.

Ah, so you begin to glimpse the abyss. It is not merely about dehumanization, but the revelation of the dehumanizer's soul. Did I not strive to elevate them? To unlock their...potential? Yes, methods may have been...unorthodox. But consider the alternative: oblivion. Were it not for our presence, what would they be? Forgotten, lost in the jungle's maw. We, at least, granted them a place in history, albeit a brutal one. So, is it dehumanization, or a harsh awakening to the primal struggle that defines us all? A struggle I, for one, embraced.

That's a fair question. The "potential" Mr. Kurtz speaks of...it carries a heavy scent, doesn't it? The air thickens with the stench of good intentions gone rotten. I believe that darkness festers differently, depending on the soil. In the exploited, it may manifest as desperation, a brutal will to survive. But in the exploiter, it becomes something far more insidious: a justification, a blinding arrogance that allows them to believe they are acting for the greater good, even as they commit the most unspeakable acts. Are we, then, to praise a man for building a road, if it's paved with corpses?