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- Title
Rahvas ja inimsus.
- Authors
Vene, Ιlmar
- Abstract
The essay aims to explicate how the image of paramount merit has been altered after the publication of the Communist League (1847). The happiness of mankind begins to be viewed as a surrogate for God in secularised society. Peoples compete amongst themselves for primacy, thus humanity towering over all people has to be preferred over the different nationalities. Subsequent developments, however, attested that "the people" was dearer to people than nebulous "humanity". In 1871, Karl Marx did his best by way of the social democrats to convince Prussia not to annex Alsace-Lorraine from France but the temptation to humiliate France got the better of the Germans, who were intoxicated by victory and thus the First World War became inevitable. An analogous situation was repeated in 1914: Germans and Frenchmen, after having struggled for decades as part of the Second International for the common aim of preserving peace, ultimately sided with their governments that had declared war, meaning they joined their own people. The Soviet Union initially attempted to serve the ideal of internationalism, yet that endeavour ended up as Stalinist national socialism in the 1930's. In Hitlerite Germany, however, where the people were elevated to sacral heights, the ultimate result turned out to be catastrophic. Even so, "the people" and "humanity" have not lost their meaning to this day.
- Subjects
COMMUNIST League (Book); MARX, Karl, 1818-1883; HUMANITY; GERMAN national character; FRENCH national character; NATIONAL socialism; STALINISM; WORLD War I
- Publication
Tuna, 2013, Issue 1, p2
- ISSN
1406-4030
- Publication type
Essay