The Russian revolution arouses new hopes. "The spectacle of the struggle
between the two democratic revolutions in Russia, one capitalist and
imperialist, the other anti-imperialist and socialist, illuminates the
problem of democracy and imperialism. This spectacle shows the Swiss
democracy its path and its mission." Above all, let Switzerland reject
the new evangel, made in Germany, of a democracy supine before the will
of a politico-economic power, a democracy which tends in home policy to
class rule, and in foreign policy to imperialism! "We need a new
orientation which shall deliver democratic thought from national
restrictions, and from the sinister contemporary trend towards the reign
of material force." True democracy, supra-national democracy, must take
its stand against "imperialism masquerading as democracy."
PART SIX.
The New Education.
This lengthy discussion leads up in the end to practical conclusions.
Public education must be reorganised and must work in a new direction.
The extant educational system suffers from a threefold inadequacy. 1.
From the humanist point of view, it immures the mind in the study of
remote epochs and past civilisations, and does nothing to prepare the
pupil for the fulfilment of contemporary duties. 2. From the
specifically Swiss point of view, it aims at creating a blind
patriotism, which can neither enlighten nor guide the understanding; it
monotonously reiterates the story of wars, victories, and brute force,
instead of teaching liberty, instead of inculcating the lofty Swiss
ideal; it cares nothing for the moral and material needs of the people
of to-day. 3. From the technical point of view, it is abjectly
materialist and militarist, and has no ideals. True, that there is a
contemporary movement, and a strong one, in favour of what is called
"national education," in favour of "the teaching of civics." But we must
be on our guard! Here is a new peril. They would make a sort of state
idol, despotic and soulless; they would make a state superstition, a
state egoism, to which our minds are to be enslaved. Do not let us stoop
to the lure. An immense task lies before us, and the Zofingerverein must
lead the way. It must play its part in the fulfilment of the moral and
intellectual mission of Switzerland. But not by isolating itself. It
must never lose its feeling of solidarity of thought and action with
other lands. It sends forth deeply-felt greeting to the
"Gesinnungsfreunde," to the friends and companions in belligerent lands,
to those young men who have fallen in France and in Germany, and to those
who yet live. It must make common cause with them; it must work shoulder
to shoulder with the free youth of the world. Julius Schmidhauser,
president of the Zofingia, who chaired these discussions and subsequently
summarised them, concludes with an Appeal to Brothers, an appeal to them
that they shall have faith, that they shall act, that they shall seek
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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