An idea of Europe: some thoughts on roots and renewal
A short introduction
Premise: this article wouldn’t exist without good friends.
Not too long ago one of them told me of the association he’s part of: its name is “Making Europe Again”, and it seems (at least to me) immune to the present disillusionment our generation is experiencing upon the question “what is Europe now, and what does it mean to us?”.
But instead of giving up on answering this question, Make Europe Again takes the distance from the harsh tones of politics, and aims at rethinking Europe through its common cultural roots, which I believe are Europe’s undisputable shared heritage.
This article is my experimental contribution to the utopic, still desirable goal of reminding the people of Europe why we are Europe, and not from a merely geographical point of view. I was asked to write of literature and music in Europe: I will try and include in this feature as many nationalities as I can, in order to represent the astonishing cultural variety of this continent, while keeping an eye on the common fil rouge that unites each national cultural specificity.
Giving the start to what I believe is an ambitious project isn’t easy, and calls for a significant beginning. Here’s where Enrico came up with the big idea, for which I’ll never aknowledge him enough. But I’d better start from the beginning.
A book from Europe, a book on Europe
“The idea of Europe” (published in Italy by Garzanti) is a short text, adapted from an intervention of George Steiner at the Nexus Institute in 2004. In spite of its small dimensions, the impact it had on my mindset was enormous for various reasons:
- It really does point out what are the directives on which the common cultural roots of Europe can be found. These directives are, in the order presented by Steiner, 1) the “café culture” — that is, the fruitful practice intellectuals had in the XVII century of gathering in cafés, thinking and discussing of politicts, philosophy, literature, revolution; 2) Europe’s walkable nature: the smoothness of its pathways, its sweet landscape makes it easier for the traveller to easily run distances from a European country to the other; 3) Street names: Europe has always celebrated its artists, thinkers, pioneers by naming the streets of its cities after them — celebrating the minds that led to breakthrough; 4) the descendance of European culture: Steiner identifies the pillars of our culture with Athens and Jerusalem, with the Greek and the Jewish culture and, more specifically, with the development of philosophy, politics, monotheism and metaphysics; 5) (the point which, I believe, is the hardest to conceive) a possible end to Europe itself, a sunset of civilization. These guidelines towards the understanding of Europe’s common traits, though simple, are not only clear, but able to trace back the very inner unifying concept behind Europe as a cultural, political identity.
- He understood that unity comes from a reflection on common roots: too many times I’ve seen politicians and other influencers discuss on tv against their opponents, fighting for immigration and for the welcoming of refugees as if it was a matter of fact, and as if they took for granted this was the only thing Europe could do. Putting such a delicate metter as a second bulletpoint of my reflection on culture will seem inappropriate to most people, but so is the attitude of those who claim to remind Europe of its duties without looking back to what Europe (and, more than anything, its culture) is and has been for centuries. The reason why Steiner’s text is universal, universally understandable and possibly ageless is that it traces back the reasons of this unifying “sense of Europe” which should recall us that beyond diversities, a shared path and vision lay behind what seems to be just a continent nowadays, but has been a conceptual reality ever since the Greek dominated the known world.
- It made me realize what a real intellectual should be like (and what type of intellectuals our times need): in his amazing essay “Tolstoy or Dostoevsky”, Steiner begins by saying that literary criticism should spring from an act of love. The first thing that stroke me in reading “An idea of Europe” is precisely Steiner’s tone. Without ever dimishing the immense reach of the cultural message of his words, his tone is, if not colloquial, simple, neat, to the point, as if he were gently welcoming the reader in a new domain of knowledge. More than everything, he’s talking passionately about the shared (geographical, historical, cultural) traits of Europe, obeying his own commandment of writing for the love and sake of what he’s writing.
Most of the deep meanings of Steiner’s essay are left out of this article, if not of my understanding, for obvious reasons: this is not a study, but only a reflection on why we should read Steiner, and what I think the final message of his work was — that is, even though the contemporary world with its issues and criticalities seems to call for immediate action, rather than reflection, a primary thought on why we are who we are is fundamental in order to remind the open-mindedness and democracy-based thought of the European people as a whole, and their ability to merge, connect, share with each other, and, most important, with the outer world.
Like the bicephalic Roman god Janus, looking both backward and forward, the European civilization as Steiner wishes it to be looks at the past and at how it built its unity throughout centuries in order to understand the future and sort out its new challenges: understanding, changing and adapting are in our roots.
