Messages from a Lost World by Stefan Zweig

Author:Stefan Zweig [Stefan Zweig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782271888
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2015-09-27T16:00:00+00:00

THE UNIFICATION OF EUROPE

FOR US WHO HAVE FOUND ourselves here reunited around an idea, I feel there is no longer a need to discuss the necessity and compelling logic of that idea, for to do so would simply be to waste time. All the leading heads of state, intellectuals, artists and scholars have been convinced for some time now that only a slender allegiance by all states to a superior governing body could relieve current economic difficulties, reduce the propensity for war and eliminate anxieties aroused by the threat of conflict, which are themselves one of the primary causes of the economic crisis. Our sole common task, then, is now to shift our ideas from the sphere of sterile discussion to one of creative action.

For that to happen we must first above all understand the exceptional challenges which confront the realization of that idea, for until now it has been the domain, as in the epoch of Humanism, of a selective higher class and its roots have not yet penetrated the earth of the people, so we would be fooling ourselves if we imagined that we were anywhere close to our ultimate objective. Let us first recognize the pre-eminence of nationalism in our epoch. The European idea is not a primary emotion like patriotism or ethnicity; it is not born of a primitive instinct, but rather of perception; it is not the product of spontaneous fervour, but the slow-ripened fruit of a more elevated way of thinking. It entirely lacks the impassioned instinct which fuels patriotic feeling, and thus the sacro-egoism of nationalism will always cut more keenly through to the average man than the sacro-altruism of the European ideal, because it is always easier to be aware, through a spirit of devotion and veneration, of one’s own kind than of one’s neighbour. Moreover, nationalism has been organizing itself for centuries and has always profited from the support of the most powerful in society. Nationalism can count on the education system, the army, those in uniform, newspapers, songs and insignia, the radio and language; it has the state as its protector and wins the response of the masses, while in the service of our idea we have only the word and writing, which (one can hardly deny) proves woefully ineffectual against many centuries of nationalism’s tried and tested formula. With books and pamphlets, with conferences and discussions, we only ever reach a tiny minority of this European community, and even then we are merely preaching to the converted; what’s more, we equally fail to employ modern technical and visual channels to further our cause. Let us take today’s discussion. Perhaps a brief extract will appear tomorrow in a newspaper, lost between a hundred other items of news, and over this extract millions of cursory and indifferent eyes will skim in an instant; and tomorrow, when we are keen to test public reaction, enquiring of the taxi driver who is taking us home or when we are at the kiosk buying

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