If I were going to write an argumentative essay on this source, I would center it around the following thesis:  “Although Cecil Rhodes’ imperialistic attitude towards Africa was reprehensible, we in the modern world embrace an economic system that does almost the same thing that Rhodes advocates.”

My first argumentative point would be that the attitude that Rhodes shows in this quote is completely immoral and indefensible.  In this quote, Rhodes is arguing for naked imperialism.  He is saying that Europeans should simply exploit people from other races.  He is saying that the Europeans should dominate other races, taking what they can from their land and using them as slave labor and as captive buyers for the surplus products made by the Europeans.  This is an attitude that does not treat the people of other races as real people.  Instead, it treats the as tools of the Europeans who can be used for the Europeans’ benefit.

My second point would be that our modern, globalized society does exactly what Rhodes is proposing in this quote.  In our modern society, rich countries tend to look to find less developed countries from which they can extract raw materials.  For example, oil companies from the rich world are working in Nigeria to extract oil from that country’s reserves.  Rich countries also try to find less developed countries in which they can use cheap labor to produce goods.  We have recently seen the consequences of this in such things as the collapse of the garment factory in Bangladesh in April, 2013 in which over 1000 people died.

Finally, I would argue that we should not embrace the exploitative nature of what Rhodes is proposing, but we should realize that the globalization implied in Rhodes’ quote can be a good thing.  Globalization has helped to pull countries like China out of poverty.  Even many countries in Africa are becoming better off.  If we can make our globalized system somewhat more humane, we can get the best out of Rhodes’s idea and leave the reprehensible aspects of his ideas in the past.