#global #human #family - The vision of #Victor-Hugo, 170 years ago
Speech held by the great #VictorHugo at the #Paris #Peace #Congress some 170 years ago about his vision of the United States of Europe:
“A day will come when your arms will fall from your hands! A day will come when war will seem as absurd between Paris and London, between Petersburg and Berlin, between Vienna and Turin, as it would today between Rouen and Amiens or between Boston and Philadelphia. A day will come when you — France, Russia, Italy, England, Germany — all you nations of the continent will merge, without losing your distinct qualities and your glorious individuality, in a close and higher unity to form a European brotherhood, just as Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, all our provinces are merged together in France.”
He goes on to say:
“A day will come when we shall see those two immense groups, the United States of America and the United States of Europe, stretching out their hands across the sea, exchanging their products, their arts, their works of genius […] And to bring about that day will not take another 400 years, for we are living in a fast-moving age.”
To some degree this has come to pass, but our ambition of unity must not stop here. We must, I feel, strive to create The United States of Mankind - a global state that embraces the entire human family in peaceful harmony. That, however, is my dream...
