Аннотация: The appeal of ideals. A note on chapters 1-3 of Joseph Lavretsky's book "Bolivar"
The appeal of ideals. A note on chapters 1-3 of Joseph Lavretsky's book "Bolivar"
From the first three chapters, the reader learns about the origin and the youth of Simon Bolivar.
Simon Bolivar was born on the territory of modern Venezuela (at that time it was a colony of Spain). He was one of the richest inhabitants of Venezuela. His relatives lived in both Spain and France ...
Apparently, the level of wealth allowed him to travel a lot - and in South America, and in North America, and in Europe (Spain, France, Italy and other countries).
Simon Bolivar lived in the era of the French Revolution and the victories of Napoleon.
Who was Napoleon? He was an "ordinary" Corsican. And he became Emperor of France. Much is available to a human ...
The minds of many young people were seized with ideals.
For example, the Republican ideal looked attractive. Today we see that under republican symbols and names a totalitarian regime may be hiding, surpassing many absolute monarchies in its negative features.
The ideal of equality also looks good. However, equality is also a complex philosophical matter ...
For example, some people like to be useful, others like to hunt people, property, personal life. And the third ones work 24 hours a day without breaks, vacations and salaries and do not have the opportunity to think about either benefit, harm, good or evil ... And the first, second, and third ones - they, if to discuss a theme idealistically, - are equal ...
If we turn to historical examples, then Julius Caesar was not equal in intellectual qualities to most of his contemporaries, and he refused to consider himself equal to those pirates who showed some disrespect for him. How should Julius Caesar demonstrate his commitment to equality (if he were a supporter of this ideal)? Was he supposed to get silly? Keep pirates among buddies?
Let's get back closer to Simon Bolivar.
Ideals take over young minds.
Absolute monarchies, having absorbed a centuries of European culture and a traditions of European humanism do not evoke the respect into a young minds. Before them is - Napoleon Bonaparte and the other historical examples ...
However, we will not forget the centuries-old republican traditions - the traditions, for example, of England, the Rzeczpospolita (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), many European trading cities (Italian, German and others) ...
In Europe, a centuries of European history and culture were behind both a monarchist and a republican orders (regimes).
(Along with ideals, illusions exist. Some dictator is, of course, not a (European) monarch. He is an elected person, he is a president. Somehow easier from the consciousness of "democracy" and "republicanism." As practice shows, historical traditions and European culture often mean a reality, which is more than a beautiful modern words...).
Why not try to embody the ideals of republicanism and equality in the new conditions, in Venezuela, in South America? ... We continue to read Joseph Lavretsky's book 'Bolivar' ...
May 13, 2020 14:52
Translation from Russian into English: May 13, 2020 21:58.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Привлекательность идеалов. Заметка о главах 1-3 книги Иосифа Лаврецкого 'Боливар''.