a willing tool of empire

[Ostap]

Hello, teachers. This is how Jimmy Dore is using the word "empire":

"Noam Chomsky continues to claim Russia's invasion of Ukraine was provoked by the West," says a guy who doesn't know dip, or if he does - even worse, because he's a willing tool of empire. And that's what I said, I go: "Chomsky makes true statement about Ukraine war, hacks for empire immediately attack him."
link with timecode

It doesn't seem to be a common expression. But "a willing tool of the regime", however, returns a little more results on Google. Is "empire" here used as a proper name, considering zero article? And should it be capitalized in writing?

 

[Tarheel]

It's confusing. (Since Russia is the invading country you would think he's talking about the Russian Empire, but that doesn't seem to be the case.)

No, "empire" is not used as a proper noun.

(a few more results)

 

[Ostap]

No, he means his country, the US, not Russia. It's clear from context. The question is why no article before "empire".

 

[Tarheel]

It might be clear enough what he means, but that doesn't mean he's right. (Anybody can make a podcast.)

 

[Ostap]

Nobody says if he's right or wrong, but is he using "empire" as a name, or maybe as an abstract uncountable noun (which would be strange to me as he's referring to some specific "ruling elites")?

 

[Tarheel]

The phrase is "a willing tool of empire," and my interpretation of that is that while that person may or may not be a part of the ruling class, he/she certainly sides with them. (It's unlikely that anybody would take kindly to being called a tool.)

 

[jutfrank]

is he using "empire" as a name

empire here is not a proper noun, it's a common noun.

,or maybe as an abstract uncountable noun (which would be strange to me as he's referring to some specific "ruling elites")?

Think of it in a similar way to 'imperialism'. Although any state is of course made up of people, it's quite normal to say that a state itself has political motives and goals.

 

[Ostap]

Think of it in a similar way to 'imperialism'. Although any state is of course made up of people, it's quite normal to say that a state itself has political motives and goals.

Can we say that it's a meaning of "empire" correspondent to this one, from lexico.com?

 

[Tarheel]

There was the Persian Empire. There was the Mongolian Empire. There was the Roman Empire. There was the Ottoman Empire. There was the British Empire. What did they all have in common?

 

[jutfrank]

Can we say that it's a meaning of "empire" correspondent to this one, from lexico.com?

I'd say so, yes.

I think there's often a key sense of expansion that some of the examples are missing. Empire isn't just about government and organisation, but also about hegemony via expansion, whether that be territorial, religious, cultural, economic, or whatever.