Universal and Platonic
Ideas
In the Novel by Theodor
Herzl
Carlos Cardoso
Aveline
Theodor Herzl
(1860-1904)
It was in 1902
and not far from the end of his life that Theodor Herzl published the utopian
novel “Old New Land”.
The long History of the Jewish people has been inevitably
intercultural and planetary. Both characteristics are shared by Herzl’s book,
which anticipates with stunning detail the creation of modern Israel.
The novel is the draft of a project for the future and
remains in many aspects far above the reality of Israel. An unknown amount of time
may be necessary for the country to achieve the level of moral excellence described
in the book. Much has been done already.
We will now examine seven aspects of the book “Old New
Land” that show it as both classic and up-to-date. This is a truly visionary
essay, thinly presented as a tale. It teaches lessons of decisive importance
for the 21st century in Israel and elsewhere.
1. The Duty of Those Who Know
Herzl inscribes his novel as part of the Utopian
literature. He discusses on its pages some of the most significant descriptions
of an ideal country.[1] He knew that “dreams regarding the future” actually occur on a creative realm of reality, and their historical effects cannot be easily denied.
For him, actions like founding the Zionist movement,
devising a future Jewish State and writing “Old New Land” were but the natural
things to do. There was no other path. Herzl explains it in the novel:
“The intellectuals of my time had the duty, similar to
the noblesse oblige of earlier days,
of working for the improvement of mankind. Each ought to have helped according
to his ability and insight.” [2]
For ages the idea of such a duty has been an axiom in
every nation. Millions of individuals have ceaselessly followed it. Remarkable Eastern
philosophers lived by it, from Confucius to Lao-tzu and Emperor Asoka. In the
West, Plato, Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Francis Hutcheson are a few
examples, not to mention, in the late Middle Ages, the Jewish statesman and
philosopher Don Isaac Abravanel.
As to theosophical literature, the same moral duty is mentioned
in various passages of “The Mahatma Letters” and the writings of Helena
Blavatsky. There is a utopian aspect in the modern esoteric movement, since the
primary goal of theosophists is to build
a nucleus of universal brotherhood.
Some citizens, however, consider the very idea of an
“improvement of mankind” a baseless dream. Lazy minds believe that looking for
the best is useless. In fact, despondency regarding the future is a dream, too;
and a self-defeating sort of nightmare at that. Dreams both good and bad are part
of human reality. “Utopia”, literally
“No-Place”, is the dim vision of that
which is desirable and can come to be. Theodor Herzl writes:
“... Dreams also are a fulfillment of the days of our
sojourn on Earth. Dreams are not so different from Deeds as some may think. All
the Deeds of men are only Dreams at first. And in the end, their Deeds dissolve
into Dreams.” [3]
2. The Jewish Openness to Universality
Any sense of deep isolation is an illusion. Everything
is interconnected in the universe and no country or culture can ever be an
exception to the rule. In Old New Land,
Jews and Arabs are friends and all religions live in harmony.
This reality can be seen in today’s Israel already. Many
Arab Israelis love and respect the country and different religions co-exist in
it. By now, however, facts on the ground are still the seeds and seedlings of a
more enlightened future.
“Let me tell you”, says one character in Old New Land, “that my associates and I
make no distinctions between one man and another. We do not ask to what race or
religion a man belongs. If he is a man, that is enough for us. (…) There are
other views among us as well. (…) I shall not bore you now with our political
controversies. They are the same here as everywhere else in the world. But I
can tell you that the fundamental principles of humanitarianism are generally
accepted among us. As far as religion goes, you will find Christian,
Mohammedan, Buddhist, and Brahmin houses of worship near our own synagogues.” [4]
Besides being open to every religion, the Land of
Israel is cosmopolitan:
“The New Society rests, rather, squarely on ideas
which are the common stock of the whole civilized world. Now, my dear friends,
do you understand what I mean? It would be unethical for us to deny a share in
our commonwealth to any man, wherever he might come from, whatever his race or
creed. For we stand on the shoulders of other civilized peoples. If a man joins
us - if he accepts our institutions and assumes the duties of our commonwealth -
he should be entitled to enjoy all our rights. We ought therefore to pay our
debts. And that can be done in only one way - by the exercise of the utmost
tolerance. Our slogan must be, now and always - ‘Man, thou art my brother!’ ” [5]
Herzl’s Israel receives migrants from every part of
the world:
“What has held good hitherto will be equally true in
the future”, says one character. “The more people come here to work, the better
off everyone will be. It is not altruism alone that prompts me to proclaim: ‘Man,
thou art my brother!’ Sheer self-interest, also, urges that we declare:
‘Brother, thou art welcome here!’ ” [6]
3. Plato, Herzl and the Need for Honesty
The Platonic Ethics is easy to find in the Jewish Utopia
and provides us with a ground-breaking point of view from which to look at present-day
facts. One can learn more than one lesson
by comparing Herzl’s ideal to the constant news of corruption and criminal
actions taking place in high-level religious and political institutions, in
Israel and other countries.
In his ancient Utopia entitled “Republic”, Plato teaches
a central tenet of universal wisdom by stating that honest men have no personal
ambition regarding material possessions or political power. He writes:
“…Money and honour have no attraction for them; good
men do not wish to be openly demanding payment for governing and so to get the
name [fame] of hirelings [mercenaries], nor by secretly helping
themselves out of the public revenues to get the name of thieves. And not being
ambitious they do not care about honour. (…) And this, as I imagine, is the
reason why the forwardness to take office, instead of waiting to be compelled,
has been deemed dishonourable.” [7]
In “Old New Land”, one of the main characters
describes the politics of the future Jewish nation:
“… Politics here is neither a business nor a profession,
for either men or women. We have kept ourselves unsullied by that plague.
People who try to live by spouting their opinions instead of by work are soon
recognized for what they are. They are despised, and get no chance to do
mischief. Our courts have repeatedly ruled in slander suits that the term ‘professional
politician’ is an insult. That fact speaks for itself.”
The Platonic influence gets obvious as Herzl proceeds:
“We have both salaried and honorary positions. But the
salaried positions are allotted for skill and merit only. There is a healthy
prejudice against partisans of any kind whatever. Paid officials are not
allowed to take part in public discussion. But it is quite different with the
honorary officials. For filling the honorary positions we have one simple
principle: Those who try to push themselves are gently ignored; while, on the
other hand, we take great pains to discover real merit in the most obscure
nooks. We thus make certain that our precious commonwealth will not become the
prey of careerists. Our president, for example, is a venerable Russian oculist.
He accepted office most unwillingly, because he was obliged to give up his
practice. (….) He worked mostly among
the poor. He turned his practice over to his daughter, who is also a prominent
physician. She now heads their great eye clinic. A fine woman, who has never
married, and devotes her skill to the sick poor.” [8]
Later on in the novel two characters discuss the issue
of Ethics in Politics:
“That president of yours seems to be a fine chap”,
says one. “A bit old and infirm though. Why did you choose him especially?”
“I can tell you that in a word (…)”, is the answer. “Because
he did not want to accept office.”
“Oho! That’s better still.”
“Yes. We follow a principle laid down by the sages of
Israel: ‘Bestow honors upon him who seeks none!’ ” [9]
Plato and Herzl think the same, and they are not
alone. The raja yogis of the Himalayas
have a similar approach to political power, and one of them wrote:
“... In our
sight an honest boot-black [is] as good as an honest king, and an immoral sweeper far higher and more
excusable than an immoral Emperor...”.
[10]
Both kinds of human beings exist, however. And since
humans are complex and contradictory, every good-willing collective project
must share the same characteristics.
4. The Unavoidable Lessons in Realism
Naiveté goes hand in hand with fraud in making people believe
that some special individual or institution is perfect, that he or it makes no
mistakes and does not need to learn from failures.
Movements whose goals are noble attract people of the
purest motives and ideals. They also have a number of selfish individuals,
however, and these often strive to obtain positions of leadership.
If associations of noble goals are to remain loyal to
their ideals and methods, there must be a Pedagogy that fights self-delusion,
and organizational structures that stimulate the noble functions of the soul,
turning the soil arid for egocentrism.
The lower principles of consciousness include
selfishness and other forms of ignorance. They must be accepted as part of
human reality, and transformed by wisdom, in any collective movement dedicated
to the regeneration of mankind. Individuals should be taught about the
challenges of self-knowledge and self-transformation.
The presence of visible selfishness is much better
than its disguised varieties. A realistic acceptance of mistakes leads to their
correction. In “Old New Land”, a skeptical visitor only believes in the
legitimacy of the mutual-help philosophy inspiring the new country after he
sees the action of unfortunate boycotters inside the community.
As an angry citizen showed him that someone was
cowardly sabotaging the community’s ideals and asked whether he understood
that, he heartily laughed and said:
“Do I understand? (…) I too have lived in the world. I
know what low beasts men are. I admit frankly, I have been incredulous about
many things in your New Society, despite the evidence of my own eyes. The whole
thing was too rose-colored, too Potemkin-like.[11] But now that I see all sorts of rascals in your camp, I begin
to believe that the thing is real after all. Now I, old desert-wanderer that I
am, must own that it’s true.” [12]
The existence of a realistic attitude regarding
imperfections in individuals and communities is a warranty seal regarding
collective efforts towards a noble ideal.
5. With Sacredness Comes Ignorance
Every intention to do good must confront organized
ignorance. To raise the focus of one’s
human consciousness up to the long term realm of divine potentialities brings
about a need to challenge habit, routine and status quo. A master of the
Eastern wisdom described this aspect of mankind’s Karma:
“As for human nature in general, it is the same now as
it was a million of years ago: Prejudice based upon selfishness; a general
unwillingness to give up an established order of things for new modes of life
and thought - and occult study requires all that and much more -; pride and
stubborn resistance to Truth if it but upsets their previous notions of things,
- such are the characteristics of your age….”[13]
Such a sober view of human nature was shared by
Theodor Herzl, who made one of the characters in his novel say:
“Prejudices, my dear fellow, there will always be. The
human pack nourishes itself on prejudices from the cradle to the grave. Well,
then. Since prejudices cannot be wiped out, they must be overcome....The more I
think of it, the more it seems to me that it must be quite interesting to be a
Jew these days. Just because one has the whole world against him.” [14]
Man and women of good will must not be excessively
afraid of challenging “tamas” or blind routine - as long as they want to search
for Truth.
With sacredness comes ignorance, for it is only when
an individual looks at life from the point of view of divine wisdom that he can
see what is right and what is wrong, and discern truth from illusion. This is
no painless operation. The tamasic routine to be defeated is mainly in oneself,
and secondarily in the collective patterns of human interaction. However, the
two things are inseparable. Ecclesiastes 1:18 says:
“…As wisdom grows, vexation grows; to increase
learning is to increase heartache.”[15]
But this is the short term process. While short term
bliss is passing, the real bliss is long-term.
It is useless to look for the eternal in the world of
impermanence. The famous verses of Ecclesiastes (1:2-7) clearly say that. They teach
the Law of Cycles:
“Utter futility! - said Koheleth - utter futility! All
is futile! What real value is there for a man in all the gains he makes beneath
the sun? One generation goes, another comes, but the earth remains the same
forever. The sun rises, and the sun sets - and glides back to where it rises.”
In other words, the Law of the Universe is eternal:
its outer manifestations are not. The verses proceed:
“Ever turning blows the wind; on its rounds the wind
returns. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place
[from] which they flow, the streams flow back again.” [16]
6. Beauty, Wisdom and the Wheels of Time
Theodor Herzl comments on Ecclesiastes through one of
the characters of “Old New Land”:
“I was thinking (…) of the co-existence of things, a
favorite theme of mine. I meditate on it when I relax, and it calms my spirit.
I welcome the years, the months or the days that still remain to me for its
sake. It is my comfort that all things which once existed still continue to
exist. The future too is already here, and I recognize it: it is the Good.
Thus, while I start from the same premises as the Preacher, son of David, who
ruled over Israel in Jerusalem, I reach a conclusion different from his. Still,
Solomon may have meant the same thing, though he said that all is vanity, and
inquired what reward had a man for all his toil under the sun.”
“All is indeed vanity if we look at things from the
transitory viewpoint of our own personalities. But once we can think beyond
ourselves, all is not vanity. Even my dreams are eternal, for others will dream
them when I am gone. Though the creators of beauty and wisdom pass away, Beauty
and Wisdom are themselves immortal. Just as the conservation of energy is
self-evident, so must we infer that there is conservation of Beauty and
Wisdom.”
“Has the joyous art of the Greeks, for instance, ever
been lost? No, it is always reborn in later ages. Are the sayings of our sages
extinguished? No, they still burn, though perhaps less brightly in the daylight
of happiness than in the dark night of misery. In that they are like all
flames. What follows? That we are in duty bound to increase Beauty and Wisdom
upon the earth unto our last breath. For the earth is we ourselves. Out of her
we come, unto her we return. Ecclesiastes said it, and we today have nothing to
add to his words: ‘But the earth shall endure forever’.” [17]
This is a true lesson in theosophy. It shows the
difference between the lower self or personality and the higher self or
spiritual soul which never dies. Into the extent that the student of philosophy
has a glimpse of the eternal, he perceives that divine timelessness was never separated from him, nor from his
present moment.
Space-time is plastic.
As the pilgrim is situated “here” in space, he can
inhabit distant places, in spirit. While living in the “now”, he dwells in
several past and future times. Regardless of appearances, he is never alone:
mutual help is a universal law, and Gilgul, the cycle of reincarnation,
corresponds to a rule of nature.
7. Truthfulness Brings About Balance
Movements based on contemplative views of the world
must have their earthly life sustained by the practice of solidarity.
In Herzl’s Israel nurseries of trees are found
everywhere. The desert came back to life thanks to trees, and forestry is a
priority. The inner dream of
universal brotherhood expresses itself through an objective network of
co-operatives. A need is felt at the same time to look beyond material facts.
In a congress of citizens, one of the leaders says:
“We are simply a large co-operative association
composed of affiliated co-operatives. And this, our congress, is really nothing
more than the general assembly of the co-operative association which is called
the New Society. Yet all of us feel that more is involved than the purely
material interests of an industrial and economic co-operative association.”
“For we establish schools and lay out parks; we
concern ourselves not only with utilitarian things, but with Beauty and Wisdom
as well. For Beauty and Wisdom, too, benefit our commonwealth. We understand
that a community must have an ideal in its own interest: let us say at once - an
ideal is indispensable. For it is that which draws us on.”
“We were not the first to discover the value of
ideals: the discovery is as old as the world. The ideal is for the community
what bread and water are for the individual. And our Zionism, which led us
hither and will lead us still further to yet unknown heights, is but an ideal,
an infinite, endless ideal.”
Herzl’s view is universal and Platonic.
The real leader, says the book, “must be one who will
concern himself with the Ideal and keep aloof from material things. All his
thought must be for the Ideal. He must be a quiet man, just and modest, above
the strife of current opinion.”[18]
These are guiding
lights for the theosophical movement, and also for every country,
association or community whose aims are peace and justice, and wisdom; and
prosperity.
NOTES:
[1] “Old New Land”, Theodor Herzl, Markus Wiener Publishers,
Princeton, 296 pp. See the third chapter of Book III. Herzl mentions the famous book “Looking
Backward”, by Edward Bellamy. He discusses Fourier. He refers to “Icaria”, by Étienne
Cabet; to “Freiland”, by Jewish economist Theodor Hertzka; to the experience of
Rahaline in 1831 and the co-operative pioneers of Rochdale, whose efforts
started in 1844.
[2] “Old New Land”, Theodor Herzl, Markus Wiener
Publishers, p. 156.
[3] “Old New Land”, Theodor Herzl, Markus Wiener
Publishers, p. 296.
[4] “Old New Land”, pp. 66-67.
[5] “Old New Land”, p. 152.
[6] “Old New Land”, p. 153.
[7] “The Republic”, by Plato, in
“The Dialogues of Plato”, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Translated by
Benjamin Jowett, copyright 1952, folio [347], p. 306.
[8] “Old New Land”, Theodor
Herzl, Markus Wiener Publishers, pp. 76-77.
[9] “Old New Land”, p. 112.
[10] “The Mahatma Letters”,
transcribed by A. T. Barker, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, CA, 1992,
see Letter XXIX, p. 223.
[11] In politics and economics,
a Potemkin village is any construction built solely to deceive others into
thinking that a situation is better than it really is. The term comes from
stories of a fake portable village built only to deceive Russian Empress
Catherine II during her journey to Crimea in 1787. While some modern historians
claim accounts of this portable village are exaggerated, the original story was
that Grigory Potemkin erected the fake settlement along the banks of the
Dnieper River in order to fool the Empress. (Wikipedia)
[12] “Old New Land”, p. 256.
[13] “The Mahatma Letters”, TUP
edition, Pasadena, California, 494 pp., Letter I, p. 3.
[14] “Old New Land”, p. 41.
[15] “Tanakh, the Jewish Bible”,
The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia-Jerusalem, p. 1442.
[16] “Tanakh, The Jewish Bible”,
The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia-Jerusalem, p. 1441.
[17] “Old New Land”, Theodor
Herzl, pp. 261-262.
[18] “Old New Land”, Theodor
Herzl, Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, 296 pp., see pp. 284-285.
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The above article
was first published in 2016 in our blog at “The Times of Israel”.
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See in our associated websites the article “Israel as a Utopia”, by Carlos Cardoso
Aveline.
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In September 2016, after a careful analysis of the state of the
esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students decided to form the Independent Lodge of Theosophists,
whose priorities include the building of a better future in the different
dimensions of life.
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