Totally share David's view of Conrad, and what else could be expected from an aristocratic Pole adventurer self-made man? A thoughtful one, sure. Well, Marlow is thoughtful, probably more than his author was. Politics is not such a reasonable thing, it's more kneejerk than that, helpless tribal loyalty, and Conrad kneejerked with pride. Didn't stop him also being an artist with a destructively challenging critique - as David rightly says, of international capitalism inter alia -, as per Balzac, Dost, Scott etc.
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