European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

56 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYSo, it is possible to conclude from Enlightenment hypotheses thatall power is subject to abuse (Lord Acton) and that law is created withthe aim of controlling such power 10 . On the other hand, fanaticism,arrogance and the sleep of reason (Goya), and the earthly utopias ofsalvation, capitalist exploitation and imperialism have all been Europeandemons. The enemies of mankind all bear our hallmarks: greed, crimeand a passion for power during the Renaissance; the intolerancedisplayed by the Inquisition was a forerunner to the religious wars of the17th century; worship of the free market, totalitarianism and the atomicbomb are all European inventions. In fact nobody has combinedbarbarism, science, technology and disregard for law with quite thesame aplomb as ourselves, and we are now grieved by these thingswherever we go.Whereas precisely and uniquely in the West, an original concatenationof circumstances has determined the appearance of culturalphenomena which seem to be involved in an evolutionary dimensionof universal scope and validity 11 , as Max Weber stated, secularizationhas experienced quite the opposite problems from those just described.At this stage, therefore, as we witness Europeans in their venerationof reason, the results of our analysis could hardly be more ambivalent.The overriding purpose of Europe: as a political Union topromote freedom; Europe’s place in a worldwide Confederationfor solidarity and peaceWhen it comes to educating young people with a view toemancipation and citizenship, our attention is immediately drawn toEuropean culture and its contradictory influence. However, this is justone element to be taken into account. While it is true that our youthhas Humanism, the Enlightenment, instrumental reason, science andtechnology —as we have observed them here— at its disposal in orderto shape the future, we must nevertheless take a world view whenconsidering how to influence the young people of our society spiritually.Furthermore, it would be of no use to introduce illusions, since ouryoung people have the right to be given un unadulterated vision of10The constitutional State (Kant; Fichte; von Humboldt) signifies overcoming thenatural State, in which man is a threat to fellow men (Hobbes), and using laws insteadof men to govern.11Vid. Max Weber, Vorbemerkung zu den gesammelten Aufsätzen zurReligionssoziologie, in Soziologie, Weltgeschichtliche Analysen, Politik, 1968.