The article discusses how people in England were not paying enough attention to the British Empire in the late 19th century. A professor suggested that they needed to think more about the empire and make changes to how they viewed it. Despite some debate on the topic, many people still focused mainly on local issues instead of thinking about the empire as a whole. This insular mindset was not just limited to England, as people in other parts of the empire also did not spend much time thinking about their shared citizenship.