The Age of Globalization by Benedict Anderson

Author:Benedict Anderson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 2013-11-05T05:00:00+00:00

Trials of a Novelist

CHERNYCHEVSKY’S QUESTION

Having packed off virtually the entire edition of El Filibusterismo to his trusted older friend José Basa in Hong Kong, and having wound up his remaining affairs, Rizal left Europe on October 19, 1891. Except for a single somber day, he would never set foot on it again. The timing was well chosen. Valeriano Weyler’s four-year term as Captain-General of the Philippines would end within a month. His successor, General Eulogio Despujol, who had made his career largely as a capable staff officer, was thought to be much less ferocious. (Indeed, he soon made himself highly popular with his colonized subjects by publicly sacking many corrupt officials and packing them off home, as well as taking his distance from the powerful religious Orders).1

Rizal’s family had repeatedly warned him not to come back, urging him rather to settle in the placid security of Hong Kong, only 800 miles from Manila, where they would try to visit him. Within days of his arrival in the Crown Colony, his aged father, his brother Paciano, and one of his brothers-in-law arrived, the last two having “escaped” from internal exile on the island of Mindoro.2 Before the end of the year, his almost completely blind mother and two of his sisters followed. The young novelist opened a successful ophthalmological practice, and his happily reunited family appeared to welcome the idea of settling down under British rule. But his reputation as his country’s foremost intellectual leader, and the terms on which he had left Europe, made it difficult for him long to accede to his family’s wishes. He was besieged with letters from his more radical comrades, still in Europe, asking him what he would do “next,” and promising their full support, whatever “next” turned out to be. Having told Del Pilar and his associates that they were wasting their time in Europe, Rizal knew how devastatingly being seen to waste time in Hong Kong could be turned against him.

Chto dyelat? We can see in photographic negative one central alternative from an alarmed, trenchant letter from Ferdinand Blumentritt, dated January 30, 1892.

Vor allen bitte ich Dich, lass Dich in keine revolutionären Agitationen ein! Denn, wer eine Revolution inszeniert, muss wenigstens die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines Erfolges für sich haben, wenn er sein Gewissen nicht mit dem unnütz vergossenen Blute belasten will. So oft ein Volk gegen ein anderes herrschendes, eine Kolonie gegen das Mutterland sich empörten, hat die Revolution nie durch eigene Kraft gesiegt. Die amerikanische Union wurde frei, weil Frankreich, Spanien und Holland sich mit ihr allierten. Die spanischen Republiken wurden frei, weil im Mutterlande Bürgerkrieg herrschte u. England u. Nordamerika sie mit Geld und Waffen versorgten. Die Griechen wurden frei, weil England, Frankreich u. Russland sie unterstützten, Rumänen, Serben, Bulgaren wurden durch Russland frei. Italien wurde frei durch Frankreich u. Preussen, Belgien durch England und Frankreich. Überall, wo die Volker auf die eigene Kraft vertrauten, erlagen sie der Soldatesca der Legitimen Gewalt: so die Italiener 1830, 1848 u. 1848, die Polen 1831, 1845 und 1863, die Ungara 1848 u.

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