A Museum for Europe !
THE . forces which aim at peace and world friendship find themselves opposed by two kinds of nationalism, one .evil and the other good. The first is, Of course,, the criminal, military, and , corrupt nationalism . with.. its dreams of glory and bloodshed, . its alliance with the armament industry and the professional swashbuckler, its manipulation of jingo arrogance and mob emotion. The second is a decent, normal, human instinct, a nationalism which springs from the affection every man has for the place in which he was born, for the landscape, the people, the speech, customs, traditions, and art of a certain portion of the earth's surface.„ There is no obvious reason why this sort of nationalism should be found among the enemies of an international comity, but the unfortunate fact has to be faced that it very often is. To some extent it is because cultural nationalism can be played on by political, ultra-patriotic nationalism and used for political ends. "Our culture in danger" is a good war-cry, which was used with telling effect during the late War as an incentive to more inten sive bloodshed or more generous lending of money.
In the past, moreover, too many of the friends of peace, Mr. H. G. Wells among them, have confused the two .kinds of nationalism and have covered them with an indiscriminate abuse. The effect of this failure of per- ception has been to throw cultural nationalism more and more into the arms of the intriguing politicians and soldiers who exploit it for purposes of their own. We may see this tendency more highly developed in the future, for cultural nationalism knows itself attacked by the great economic combination of modern commeree as well as by the smoothing-out, obliterating, standardizing influence of inventions like the talkies, the gramophone, and wireless broadcasting.
But I do not intend to waste time in arguing that inter- nationalism should for tactical reasons be more courteous to cultural idiosyncracies. I will go further and say that if internationalism is the enemy of national distinctions then many people will feel that they are buying the machinery of peace too dearly. The wars 'of Europe are ghastly,. but the variety of Europe is superb and pro- digiously fertile. The problem that faces us is : How are we to preserve this astounding Wealth of spiritual soils and settings, of .social and individual types; within the framework of .a more closely cohering society ? To what extent, for example, is the machinery of a sovereign state necessary for the existence of a national culture ? And there is the further ,question: How can we win over to the ranks of internationalism the sentiments of cultural nationalism ?
I am far from thinking that a ready-made solution to the problem is to be found ; yet it seems to me that the key to it may lie in some great constructive effort under- taken in common. I believe that the internationalists must show themselves the friends of cultural nationalism.
One concrete objective suggests itself as a potential emblem and incarnation of the marriage of true na- tionalism and true internailonalism.. It would at once tend to foster the variety and richness of the European cultural complex, and emphasize the. interweaving of culture with culture which gives the pattern such a fascinating play of colour.
Europe needs a museum ! At some central point, determined by railway convergences rather than by geographical pedantries—and anywhere between Basle and upper Austria would be possible—there should be a permanent exhibition -of European culture in all its variety. It should partake -of the character of the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg or of the Northern Museum in Stockholm, though it would be continental and not racial in scope.
Such an institution, as one conceives it now, would consist of galleries in which would be displayed carefully selected exhibits illustrating each unit in the diversity of peoples and regions. Characteristic costume, as,well as local crafts and architecture ; the 'art industries, such as printing and metal-working, along with the purely utilitarian industries like steel-making—all these would find a place. Something of the history and topography of the country concerned would be illustrated in relies and models. The nature of the agriculture pursued and of the social structure might be the subject of other exhibits. There would be national or regional dishes served in restaurants in which typical music was being' played. Each country would be challenged to make its gallery rich in exhibits and in decoration of a national style. I can see in such a museum the whole of a Norwegian peasant house brought down from the slopes of Gud- brandsdal as to-day you can see them in the Sandviks collection in Lillehammer. And I can imagine other countries responding to such a challenge with enthusiasm.
The lay-out of the galleries—or, as it might be; the separate halls—of the museum would be a matter for the most skilful arrangement, for it would be designed to strengthen the impression of unity in diversity by every possible means. Thus cultures would be placed in- a rela- tionship to one another corresponding to actual histoiical fact. And all Might converge on a 'central point where, either by symbolic statues or by other means, the con- ception of Europe as a single cultural family would he given expression.
It is probably not sufficient to create a mere museum of this sort. For a museum out of touch with living intellectual things is not of the slightest value. We must, then, develop the idea a stage further, and imagine a museum which would be at the same *time a centre for art, a museum equipped with galleries for exhibitions of modern art, with a theatre for festivals of opera or drama. Without poaching on the preserves of Salzburg or Bayreuth, a centre of this kind, under the direction of an international 'council, 'could become the scene of ambitious displays of European art, attracting thousands of people from every country.
Once the main idea is achieved, many subsidiary things would follow. The vital matter now is to obtain adherents for the Museum of Europe. Even if it did not become anything more than that, it would still- be a perpetual reminder to every man between the Atlantic and the Urals that the boundaries of states 'are not divinely appointed barriers, that there is a wider society beyond, in which a nation could participate without losing the things it held dear.
The pan-European idea, the conception of a United States of Europe, has so far proceeded along the wrong lines, as many think. It has striven t 3 give Europe a body, through economic unification, before it has found a soul. The true line of advance would seem to be towards the realization of Europe as a brotherhood of related national cultures rather than as a herd. driven into reluctant unity by transatlantic economic pressure or as a system of military alliances.
The trouble so far has been that we have never given the peace instinct a chance to create. Its action has been purely negative, abolishing this army, reducing that navy, setting up this legal document to make war more difficult, denouncing that form of destroying your neighbours. Now it is a well-established fact in psychology that people prefer to be given something to do rather than forbidden to do something else. We have been wagging a reproving forefinger at the nations; telling them to put _their- guns away and be good boys. But we have not given them the box of bricks which will more effectually keep them quiet.
' -A Museum of Europe would give the people of good will a chance to make something together. It is a pity that at present the nations only meet or communicate with one another as political entities, that is to say, in the form in which they are most likely to quarrel. We *ant a cultural complement to the Geneva Assembly, It Would, apart from everything else; do something to Ave the problem stated earlier in this article, the problem Of the nation diveited.of the organs Of statehood yet seekinito Preserve iticultnriand bring it to the attention of the rest of the world. As the conception of sovereignty fades, this problem will 'become important.
MA.Leolat Tlionsox.
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