The Duties of Man By Giuseppe Mazzini (Italian patriot and statesman, 18051872; the deliverer of his country here

urges the deliverance of mankind)

WE improve with the improvement of Humanity; nor without the improvement of the whole can you hope that your own moral and material conditions will improve. Generally speaking, you cannot, even if you would, separate your life from that of Humanity; you live in it, by it, for it. Your souls, with the exception of the very few men of exceptional power, cannot free themselves from the influence of the elements amid which they exist, just as the body, however robust its constitution, cannot escape from the effects of corrupt air around it. How many of you have the strength of mind to bring up your sons to be wholly truthful, knowing that you are sending them forth to persecution in a country where tyrants and spies bid them conceal or deny two-thirds of their real opinions? How many of you resolve to educate them to despise wealth in a society where gold is the only power which obtains honors, influence, and respect, where indeed it is the only protection from the tyranny and insults of the powerful and their agents? Who is there among you who in pure love and with the best intentions in the world has not murmured to his dear ones in Italy, Do not trust men; the honest man should retire into himself and fly from public life; charity begins at home, and such-like maxims, plainly immoral, but prompted by the general state of society? What mother is there among you who, although she belongs to a faith which adores the cross of Christ, the voluntary martyr for humanity, has not flung her arms around her sons neck and striven t o dissuade him from perilous attempts to benefit his brothers? And even if you had strength to teach the contrary, would not the whole of society, with its thousand voices, its thousand evil examples, destroy the effect of your words? Can you purify, elevate your own souls in an atmosphere of contamination and degradation?

And, to descend to your material conditions, do you think they can be lastingly ameliorated by anything but the amelioration of all? Millions of pounds are spent annually here in England, where I write, by private charity, for the relief of individuals who have fallen into want; yet want increases here every year, and charity to individuals has proved powerless to heal the evilthe necessity of collective organic remedies is more and more universally felt. There is no hope for you except in universal reform and in the brotherhood of all the peoples of Europe, and through Europe of all humanity. I charge you then, O my brothers, by your duty and by your own interest, not to forget that your first dutiesduties without fulfilling which you cannot hope to fulfil those owed to family and country are to Humanity. Let your words and your actions be for all, since God is for all, in His Love and in His Law. In whatever land you may be, wherever a man is fighting for right, for justice, for truth, there is your brother; wherever a man suffers through the oppression of error, of injustice, of tyranny, there is your brother. Free men and slaves, YOU ARE ALL BROTHERS.

EXPLANATION Despite its moving images and inspiring ideas, Giuseppe Mazzinis The Duties of Man is little more than a misguided attempt of a nave and idealistic man to promote the idea of nationalism. The work centers around the idea that the first duties of man are to embrace the whole human family in [his] affections and that national unification is the divinely designed means to achieving this end. While Mazzinis goal is certainly a valid and commendable one, his proposed method toward achieving this goal is completely unrealistic and illogical. When Mazzini writes that the rise of the countries of the people, countries born of the nationalistic efforts of their citizens will lead to harmony and fraternity [between all countries], he fails to realize that nationalism also serves as a powerful exclusionary force. The creation of a nation has never failed to leave certain people feeling displaced and unrepresented the rise of Hungary left Croatian and Serbian minorities feeling excluded, the nationalistic efforts of Russia crushed the Polish people, and German nationalism came at the expense of the Danish. These frustrated minorities would not have felt inspired to begin efforts aimed at benefiting all Humanity after nationalism took its toll; instead, th ey would likely feel compelled to express their anger through protests and violence. Nationalism is generally not the precursor to unity and peace, as predicted by Mazzini, but instead to war. The evil governments Mazzini demands be overthrown in place o f countries defined by natural boundaries are themselves a source of nationalism for many of their citizens their overthrow would only lead those displaced to demand the restoration of their nation (be it an evil government), sparking a violent and int erminable cycle. Wouldnt one be better off working to directly help those most in need in their community, be it local or international, to improve Humanity instead of dividing up Humanity into isolated groups based on exclusion? Nationalism, though a powerful tool for uniting certain peoples and generating support for a government, is not the key to humanitys improvement.