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Feb. 26th, 2002
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Feb. 26th, 2002 01:01 pmI've just read an article that analyzes psychological responses to Esperanto.
The article's thesis seems to be that people dismiss Esperanto as some kind of pretend language as a defense mechanism, because Esperanto threatens the virtues of one's own mother tongue, combined with an ignorance of many facts both about Esperanto and about language in general.
But by stating what it takes to fear Esperanto, it also implies what it takes to embrace it. The article describes all manner of academic and nationalistic prejudice which one must overcome, or have never encountered, in order to accept Esperanto as valid and benign. Though one might encounter all sorts of different political views, it seems that one can trust an Esperantist to keep things in perspective, not to run away with a metaphor, and to be able to tolerate, consider, and perhaps even entertain ideas that seem to contradict a lifetime of world experience.
I'm curious what it'll be like to be in a roomful of people like this.
The article's thesis seems to be that people dismiss Esperanto as some kind of pretend language as a defense mechanism, because Esperanto threatens the virtues of one's own mother tongue, combined with an ignorance of many facts both about Esperanto and about language in general.
But by stating what it takes to fear Esperanto, it also implies what it takes to embrace it. The article describes all manner of academic and nationalistic prejudice which one must overcome, or have never encountered, in order to accept Esperanto as valid and benign. Though one might encounter all sorts of different political views, it seems that one can trust an Esperantist to keep things in perspective, not to run away with a metaphor, and to be able to tolerate, consider, and perhaps even entertain ideas that seem to contradict a lifetime of world experience.
I'm curious what it'll be like to be in a roomful of people like this.