Esperanto and Its Rivals: The Struggle for an International Language
- Автор: Garvía Roberto
- Год: 2015
- Язык: русский
- Жанр: Культурология
Электронная книга - «Esperanto and Its Rivals: The Struggle for an International Language». Краткое содержание книги:
A Nobel laureate in medicine and a supporter of the rights of women and the elevation of the working classes, Richet was a well-known pacifist. He pre- sided over the Ninth Universal Peace Congress, which took place in 1900 in Paris, and was president of the French Society for International Arbitration. But there was something about Richet that seemed not quite right to other
Esperantists. It was not his interest in spiritism (see Chapter 14) but his plans for the betterment of society. Contrary to the continuous chatter of well- intentioned humanists, Richter thought it incontrovertible that the human species was hierarchically ordered. Crowning the natural hierarchy was the white race, undoubtedly superior to the "yellow" and to black people, the latter of which have "not made any contribution [to civilization] and are at the very bottom."17 He opposed intermarriage and favored eugenics: "If the am- putated, the hare-lipped, the club-footed, the poly-fingered, the hydrocephalic, the idiots, the deaf-mutes, the rickety and the cretins were eliminated (suppri- mes), human societies would not miss anything. There would be fewer un- happy people. That's all."18 The promotion of science and the organization of society, Richet claimed, demanded the adoption of Esperanto and a program of human selection. If consistently implemented, the breeding of the fittest and the sterilization or the feeble and unsavory could deter the degeneration of society and bring closer Vhumanite future, composed of wiser, healthier, and happier men. If, given their primitive stage of development, war is ex- pected among uncivilized nations, among Europeans it is not. Still, it has to be prevented, since it "makes a selection, but in the opposite direction. It elim- inates the brave, the young, the strong, the vigorous, the noble, and it doesn't let survive, for the perpetuation of the species, nothing but the scum (le re- but humaine)."19
Auguste Forel was also a Social Darwinist and a pacifist Esperantist. A staunch defender of women's rights, he also opposed discrimination against homosexuals. He advocated free trade, but was not against the socialization of land and industries provided that it improved the living conditions of the working class. He was also a convinced anti-nationalist. European nations, according to him, were artifacts. As he expressed to a colleague: "Our cul- tural nations are an utterly artificial product, created by wars and what the conquerors imposed to the conquered. . . . It is a deeply rooted scientific lie when, for example, the German nation defines itself as being 'purely German.' It is full of Celtic, Slavic and mixed blood. Therefore, I utterly reject this ar- tificially produced nationalism." But there was an important caveat to this anti-nationalism: "Of course, one should not misunderstand me. In no way I doubt true racial differences, according to natural science, nor do I agree with mixing in inferior races such as Negroes."20 To neutralize nationalism, Forel proposed a United States of the Earth, an international parliament, army, and court of justice. Esperanto should be compulsory in every school.21 The advancement of civilization, however, also required racial and eugenic measures. Whereas the interbreeding of European races had been the most beneficial to the progress of civilization, the "laws of evolution and the fight for existence" have also produced peoples with "smaller brains." Examples of these are the Weddas in Ceylon and the Akkas in Congo. Weddas and Akkas, however, live far away and do not represent a biological hazard. More threat- ening are other
races, above all the Negroes, who are physically strong and robust, extraordinarily fertile, but mentally inferior, who have learned to adapt to our culture extremely well. When they have adapted to our culture they corrupt it and our race through sloth, lack of ability and by creating such awful, mixed races as the Mulates. By carefully observing the situation in the southern states of the USA it is easy to be convinced how negatively the Negro element, as it increases, affects our culture.22
Cooperating with positivist pacifists like La Fontaine, Fried, and Moch, and Social Darwinists were humanist and religious pacifists, particularly im- portant in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as the feminist branch of the international pacifist movement, also well represented by lead- ing Esperantists.
Like the positivist pacifist, the religious or "absolutist pacifists," to use Eloise Brown's terminology, also supported the development of interna- tional law and a system of international arbitration. But religious pacifists went further: they campaigned for mutual disarmament and rejected the concept of "defensive war," which Moch wanted the International Peace Bu- reau to accept. In fact, it was the well-known British Esperantist Priscilla Peckover (1833-1931), also a member of the International Peace Bureau, who most forcefully opposed Moch's resolution, and eventually ensured its rejec- tion.23 The daughter of a wealthy banker, Peckover was raised a Quaker. She learned Esperanto at a late age and made a name in the Esperanto movement thanks to her financial support for the translation and publication of the Bible.24
The Quaker Montagu C. Butler was an absolute pacifist and an Esperan- tist. Even his recommendation of conscientious objection during World War I did not prevent Butler's election as secretary of the British Esperanto Asso- ciation in 1916, which attests to the relative strength of this radical pacifism among British Esperantists.25
Also militant against positivist pacifists were the feminist branch of the pacifist movement that began to emerge in the United States and Europe at the end of the century. Like their religious counterparts, pacifist feminists advocated for disarmament, something that positivist pacifists were reluc- tant to contemplate for fear of being accused of treason. In their more radi- cal version, pacifist feminists supported an anti-militarist agenda, on the premise that military values and spending contributed to the subjugation of women. Women peace activists were particularly strong in France. In 1896, the Ligue des Femmes pour de desarmement international (Women's League for International Disarmament) was created, as was, shortly later, a more rad- ical splinter group, l'Association "La paix et le desarmement par les femmes" (Women's Association for Peace and Disarmament). This latter association was led by Sylvie Flammarion, also a member of Societo Esperantista por la Paco.26 Similar organizations were set up in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, and in April 1915 they merged in the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace—or the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), as it was later named.27 Like the International Peace Bureau, the WILPF supported and used Esperanto for international correspondence and meetings.28 Finally, in 1929, the Unuiĝo de Esperan- tistaj Virinoj (League of Esperantist Women) was founded. Highest on their agenda was peace: they supported the WILPF and Einstein's League.29
The connections between Esperantism and pacifism, in all its varieties, show the different ways the language was interpreted and appropriated. Pac- ifism was certainly a privileged platform to make Esperanto visible. In fact, in 1905, six of the twenty-six members of the International Peace Bureau were also leading Esperantists.30 But, although important, pacifism did not exhaust Esperantist activism. As we see in the following chapters, they were a rest- less tribe, dispersed and much involved in the social and political challenges of their time.