In order to introduce this Seminar, I’d like to start by mentioning a Plea to Europeans, written by Stéfan Zweig in 1932. The text of his conference, recently published in French, is called “The Moral detoxification of Europe”. This plea was not heard at that time but it seems to me that it dealt with issues concerning the construction of Europe which are still real...
Stéfan Zweig starts with a question: how to get out of the “moral depression” , whose manifestation is expressed, in all European countries, in this period, by a lack of optimism but also by mistrust and aggressiveness towards neighbouring countries.
His answer or his solution is the construction of a certain Europe. An idea,which, as he conceives it, appears at that time, as a total utopia. And that,as he warns people, his generation won’t be able to realize. The fact is that, raised in the hatred of the Other, before and during WWI, his generation will always remain influenced by its negative passions and will always be ready to react to the smallest conflict by using violence, this one being always maintained by the nationalistic discourses of politicians, journalists and some intellectuals. But even worse, this violence inspiring as well the historical speech taught in schools, whose most part is the study of armed conflicts between countries. A story of which every nation gives its own version, to clear itself of his own belligerent responsibility.
That’s why S. Zweig puts his hope in future generations, provided that they are educated and trained in a completely different way.
First of all, this national history of conflicts should be replaced by a “history of culture”. The latter shows how, far from looking for ruling over others, artists, musicians, philosophers and scientists have never stopped creating dialogues and enriching one another by suppressing borders. It is enough to mention the Renaissance, the Enlightenment or the globalization of art and literature in the 20th century.
But this kind of education, using books and works, are not enough to fight against the imaginary threat of The Other. MEETINGS between young people from all countries, in each own country, are necessary. Young people need to be confronted to each other’s cultural diversity, so that they may be enriched by foreign culture instead of rejecting it.The main enrichment will be the development of a “mediation spirit” replacing the nowadays dominant culture of conflict and violence.
In order to create this new type elite which has nothing more to do with the models of war heroes, S. Zweig imagines a system of university exchanges, very similar to our Erasmus program which actually exists and which he has practically inspired. He also imagines a program on a large scale and a long time with high school students, along with a scholarship system, allowing the most disadvantaged ones to participate.
These youngsters would become true European citizens, establishing in every country “a large group of people able to have a national and at the same time a European point of view”. Without this cultural union, that harmonizes a civilized society, Stefan Zweig does not believe in the possibility of the construction of a politically, militarily and financially European Union.
After 80 years, what to think about this utopia? What kind of a new light can it bring us?
We know that the construction of Europe hasn’t followed Zweig’s model. On the contrary! The pioneers of the Europe we know have started with the market economy, then, little by little, have built an institutional, legal and political structure referring to Human Rights as a charter of good behaviour. The problem of youngsters’ education, without being completely absent, has remained additional.
But we’re aware that during a period of national or international crisis, or armed conflicts at the doors of Europe, this one might have to suffer the consequences, the major principles being easily ignored. Then the borders of Europe tend to close up like a bastion with the risk of the dialogue between the European countries to become out of control, even to the point of “injuring the vanity of a neighboring nation”. What we must absolutely avoid, says S. Zweig.
As this convinced European remarks: “The European idea is not a spontaneous feeling such as the nationalistic one or the feeling to belong to a population. It is not instinctive, but it’s born out of thoughts. It is not the fruit of a spontaneous passion, but the slowly ripened fruit of higher consideration”. In other words, it’s the product of rational thoughts.
Therefore there is no need to be surprised by the regressions, about this European conception, that could occur in a period of economic, social, political or ecological crisis. In fact, during the last decades and depending on the country, we have allowed nationalism to flourish. However we must recognize that we are far from winning the battle of education and of creation of a common culture, both ethical and political, the battle of a newway of being and thinking which would encourage to fight regression and identitarian closure.
The YOUNG EUROPEAN THEATRE RENCONTRES, from their very start, have gone beyond artistic exchanges in the way they have forced intercultural dialogues to be integrated into living experiences able to change consciences. We will have to discuss this in the course of today.
S. Zweig encourages us to ask ourselves other questions: What about our history books at the present time? To what extent do they offer us a “national” even “nationalistic” story? Are we heading towards a specifically European story? What part, at schools is given to a Culture story in each country? A question appears to me particularly interesting : Do we include dialogue in other cultures ? In other words, what is told in your own history books about the protection and translation of Greek texts by Arabian scholars and about their transmission to the West World?
These are the numerous questions we may hear asked through the debates we’ll have, around the themes we’ll deal with, on Saturday.
Documents
Introduction in french : Click on this link to open this document.
Introduction in english : Click on this link to open this document.
French version
