Mazzini proti Carlyleu

Tokrat si ne morem kaj, da se ne bi malo zgražal nad najnovejšo kolumno Mihe Mazzinija [arhivski link]. Najnovejšo, seveda, predvsem v kronološkem smislu; po vsebini so tako ali tako vse njegove kolumne že kakšnih dvajset let bolj ali manj ena in ista kolumna, le vsakič malo drugače napisana. Ampak nad tem sem pred leti na tem blogu že godrnjal in ni pravega razloga, da bi še enkrat.

Ne, k pisanju me je spodbodla njegova zanikrna, obžalovanja vredna šlamparija v predpredzadnjem odstavku:

Kot je zapisal razvpito nesrečni Carlyle, ki ga puritanci venomer citirajo: edina krona, ki jo moramo nositi venomer, je Jezusova trnjeva krona.

URL, na katerega kaže beseda “Carlyle”, gre na eno od tistih cenenih neuporabnih strani, ki vsebujejo kopice citatov brez karkšnega koli konteksta in ki niti slučajno ne zbujajo zaupanja, da je kdo te citate tudi res preveril. Ampak že iz tega citata samega je očitno, da niti slučajno ne more pomeniti tega, kar mu Mazzini tukaj pripisuje:

Every noble crown is, and on Earth will forever be, a crown of thorns.

To bi se dalo brez konteksta mogoče razumeti kot misel o tem, kako hudo breme je vladarski položaj; ali pa o tem, da je resnično plemenita le tista krona (karkoli bi krona v tem kontekstu že pomenila), ki jo spremlja nekakšno trpljenje. V vsakem primeru pa ni nobenega govora o tem, da jo moramo venomer nositi.

Še bolj očitno pa to, kako grdo je Mazzini tu s tem citatom zgrešil, postane, če ga pogledamo v kontekstu. Izkaže se, da je iz Carlylove knjige Past and Present.

Za začetek je tu en dober odstavek zgražanja nad aristokrati, ki so podedovali plemiške nazive in bogastvo, sami pa ne naredijo ničesar:

Is there a man who pretends to live luxuriously housed up; screened from all work, from want, danger, hardship, the victory over which is what we name work;—he himself to sit serene, amid down-bolsters and appliances, and have all his work and battling done by other men? And such man calls himself a noble-man? His fathers worked for him, he says; or successfully gambled for him: here he sits; professes, not in sorrow but in pride, that he and his have done no work, time out of mind. It is the law of the land, and is thought to be the law of the Universe, that he, alone of recorded men, shall have no task laid on him, except that of eating his cooked victuals, and not flinging himself out of window. Once more I will say, there was no stranger spectacle ever shown under this Sun. [vir]

Kmalu zatem Carlyle preide na razmišljanje o tem, kaj plemenitost pravzaprav sploh je:

What is the meaning of nobleness, if this be ‘noble’? In a valiant suffering for others, not in a slothful making others suffer for us, did nobleness ever lie. The chief of men is he who stands in the van of men; fronting the peril which frightens back all others; which, if it be not vanquished, will devour the others. Every noble crown is, and on Earth will forever be, a crown of thorns. The Pagan Hercules, why was he accounted a hero? Because he had slain Nemean Lions, cleansed Augean Stables, undergone Twelve Labours only not too heavy for a god. In modern, as in ancient and all societies, the Aristocracy, they that assume the functions of an Aristocracy, doing them or not, have taken the post of honour; which is the post of difficulty, the post of danger,—of death, if the difficulty be not overcome. [vir]

Carlyle torej pravi, da so resnično plemeniti tisti ljudje, ki so za človeštvo kaj velikega in pomembnega naredili in s tem postali njegov vodilni del; trnjeva krona je prispodoba za njihov trud in težave, ki jih morajo pri tem premagovati. Nikakor ne trdi, da morajo tako krono vsi ljudje ves čas nositi, še veliko manj pa s to krono misli na take vrste nesmiselno trpljenje, kakršno sebi in drugim nakopavajo puritanci, o katerih piše Mazzini v svoji kolumni. Jaz (kot zadrt egalitarist in nasprotnik kakršnega koli dela) Carlylea in njegovih nazorov sicer ne maram, ampak dejstvo je, da mu Mazzini tu dela krivico. Njegove kolumne pa bom odslej bral s še malo večjo količino nezaupanja kot že sicer.