Esperanto is supposed to be culturally neutral. It is a big plus for Esperanto, not a defect.

It is a mistake for Esperanto to be a carrier of pinko liberalism. Political correctness shouldn't be part of Esperanto-culture (and nor should any other social philosophy).

And history shows that there was much enthusiasm for Esperanto at times when the sense of nationality identity was strong.

If a Frenchman doesn't want to speak English or a German not want to speak French. This works in favour of Esperanto. Esperanto's cultural neutrality is then seen as a big advantage.

Or to update this for the modern world, when the Chinese reject English as a language that doesn't carry their values, and English speakers chafe under the burden of learning Mandarin, the whole issue of a neutral easy to learn interlingvo may become revitalised.

Or advances in artificial intelligence and machine translation may just confine Esperanto to the history books.

In the meantime we should be wary of allowing Esperanto to become saturated with particular cultural values.

sudanglo:when the Chinese reject English as a language that doesn't carry their values, and English speakers chafe under the burden of learning Mandarin, the whole issue of a neutral easy to learn interlingvo may become revitalised.

I very much doubt that resistance to speaking foreign languages, whether it be due to national pride, cultural judgements, xenophobia, racism etc is likely to revitalise the idea of an IAL. I would think that an increase in those things will likely foster attitudes harmful to the adoption of a bridge between peoples.

The idea that a Frenchman is going to learn Esperanto because he's too proud to speak English doesn't really strike me the least bit plausible.

Alkanadi:

Cfail0814:I myself am inherently right wing... I don't want to live in a world where everyone is the same, let's all hold hands and sing kumbayya

Isn't it the left that is the most supportive of diversity? If you don't want to live in a world where everyone is the same, then aren't your social values more aligned with left wing ideology?

I don't see any connection here. Who ever said that right-wing ideology wants everyone to be the same? Obama's the one trying to redistribute the wealth so we can all be equally poor, introduce Common Core and such so we can all be equally stupid, and mandate vaccines so we can all be equally sick.* I'm not left-wing, and what I generally mean by that is that I think the government should concern itself with defending the life, liberty, and property of innocent citizens, and not spending all our resources trying to educate people, give them handouts, and control their lives. Maybe you have a different definition.

*I understand in saying this, that some people will strongly disagree and want to quarrel about it. Obviously you're all welcome to your opinion; I'm not the least bit interested in arguing about this. I'm just hanging on 'til 2016. At which point we'll probably get someone else who's about the same...

Christa627:

Alkanadi:

Cfail0814:I myself am inherently right wing... I don't want to live in a world where everyone is the same, let's all hold hands and sing kumbayya

Isn't it the left that is the most supportive of diversity? If you don't want to live in a world where everyone is the same, then aren't your social values more aligned with left wing ideology?

I don't see any connection here. Who ever said that right-wing ideology wants everyone to be the same? Obama's the one trying to redistribute the wealth so we can all be equally poor, introduce Common Core and such so we can all be equally stupid, and mandate vaccines so we can all be equally sick.* I'm not left-wing, and what I generally mean by that is that I think the government should concern itself with defending the life, liberty, and property of innocent citizens, and not spending all our resources trying to educate people, give them handouts, and control their lives. Maybe you have a different definition.

*I understand in saying this, that some people will strongly disagree and want to quarrel about it. Obviously you're all welcome to your opinion; I'm not the least bit interested in arguing about this. I'm just hanging on 'til 2016. At which point we'll probably get someone else who's about the same...

Be careful not to mix social and economic conservatism/liberalism here. There are more than two political parties, and the US Republicans and Democrats are poor representations of the two ideals. Conservatives are OK with diversity "as long as it's somewhere else".

About the vaccines, you are ignorantly putting lives in danger by refusing to accept a rediculously small chance of a negative reaction. As a conservative you should be fairly accepting of Penn and Teller.
I'm sure the millions of infected/dead from times before vaccination are turning over in their graves at our stupidity. What's the saying, "your freedoms end where mine begin"?

kaŝperanto: Conservatives are OK with diversity "as long as it's somewhere else".

Says...? I mean, besides you?

I sense this thread degenerating into a political flamewar, so I'd like to get my (hopefully not too polemic) commentary in first.

The left/right scale is, I think, too simplistic and fails to accurately describe the range of possible political views because it couples economics with social policy, whereas one can be (say) far-left economically but far-right socially, á la Tolstoj (or vice versa, á la Rothbard).

In recent Western history, the so-called "right-wing" is more associated with nationalism (e.g., "American exceptionalism" is primarily heard in Republican discourse), and "left-wing" associated with a more cosmopolitan attitude - by which I mean, not so eager to assess one's country and countrymen as being inherently superior to others.

But it does not necessarily have to be this way - there are plenty of historical instances where nationalism (the stronger jingoistic kind) existed alongside "left-wing" politics. For instance, in the US up until the 1960s the "hawks" were the Democrats.

So I don't think we can conclude that the left-wing is a more comfortable place for Esperanto, insofar as nationalism doesn't necessarily correlate with right-wing (and that's assuming that nationalism is inimical to Esperanto).

Christa627:[...] and not spending all our resources trying to educate people [...]

+1. QFT. Come and live here in Guatemala. The government here surely does not spend any resources trying to educate people. You would love it. A country indeed starts to prosper, once the government finally stops investing in education.

tommjames:The idea that a Frenchman is going to learn Esperanto because he's too proud to speak English doesn't really strike me the least bit plausible.

Tiu estas mi

Mi loĝis en Kebekio, kie anoj parolas francia. Kebekio estas sub la dominado de Kanado, kies anoj parolas anglan. Mi volas ke la kulturo de Kebekio transvivu. Por survivi, la kebekia kulturo bezonas ties lingvon. La angla lingvo forte konkuri la francan lingvon, kiu malfacile survivas uzata per nur ok miliono personoj ĉirkaŭantaj per tricent miliono anglaparolantoj. Kiam oni parolas angla en Kebekio, tio malfortigi la francan lingvon tie.

Estas nur unu de miaj motivoj por lerni esperanton. Mi opinias ke esperanto estas bonega komunikilo.

Well, I could have written this in English. I do not have hate for English. I just wanted to practice esperanto.

Cocio_16:Well, I could have written this in English. I do not have hate for English. I just wanted to practice esperanto.

Mais,
Il faut parler anglais ici... pas l'esperanto.

Elhana2:So you want to speak Esperanto with the rest of Canada outside of your tiny province? Do you realize the absurdness of this idea?

If I interpret Cocio's point correctly, he is saying that a strong sense of regional identity favourably influences one's attitude towards Esperanto, not that he is proposing that anglophone Canadians all learn Esperanto.

We can't do the experiment of distributing the francophone Quebecians across Canada and imposing a liberal view of multi-culturism. But if we could, we might see how Esperanto is viewed differently.

Actually, you could in principle test the effect on attitudes towards Esperanto by comparing attitudes within the UK - between London, where 200 languages are spoken and multi-culturism strongest, with attitudes in say Scotland or Wales where nationalism is emerging.

The desire of the Scots to detach themselves from England and independently manage their own affairs has been well publicised. You may be less aware of the uppitiness of the Welsh.

I found it jaw-dropping, as there are practically no Welshmen who are not native speakers of English, but when using a cashpoint (ATM in American) in Wales, the machine asked me whether I wanted on-screen instructions in Welsh or English.