The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races: With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of MankindGobineau, Arthur, comte de
Philosophy
The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races: With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of Mankind
me, that all the generous private and public endeavors to instruct our
rural population, are absolutely futile, and can tend no further than to
enforce an outward compliance. They care not for the knowledge we wish
to give them--they will not have it, and this not from mere negligence
or apathy, but from a feeling of positive hostility to our
civilization. This is a startling assertion, but I have not yet adduced
all the proofs in support of it.
In those parts of the country where the laboring classes are employed in
manufactures principally, and in the great cities, the workmen are
easily induced to learn to read and write. The circumstances with which
they are surrounded, leave them no doubt as to the practical advantages
accruing to them from these acquisitions. But so soon as these men have
sufficiently mastered the first elements of knowledge, to what use do
they, for the most part, apply them? To imbibe or give vent to ideas and
sentiments the most subversive of all social order. The instinctive, but
passive hostility to our civilization, is superseded by a bitter and
active enmity, often productive of the most fearful calamities. It is
among these classes that the projectors of the wildest, most incendiary
schemes readily recruit their partisans; that the advocates of
socialism, community of goods and wives, all, in fact, who, under the
pretext of removing the ills and abuses that afflict the social system,
propose to tear it down, find ready listeners and zealous believers.
There are, however, portions of the country to which this picture does
not apply; and these exceptions furnish me with another proof in favor
of my proposition. Among the agricultural and manufacturing populations
of the north and northeast, information is general; it is readily
received, and, once received, retained and productive of good fruits.
These people are intelligent, well-informed, and orderly, like their
neighbors in Belgium and the whole of the Netherlands. And these, also,
are the populations most closely akin to the Teutonic race, the race
which, as I said in another place, gave the initiative to our
civilization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account