A recent article in the American Thinker inspired a discussion thread on abovetopsecret.com which attempts to link Obama’s agenda, George Soros, and Esperanto. I would not contest the link between Obama and Soros, or the link between Soros and Esperanto, but as an Esperanto enthusiast, I must take issue with linking all three, and tying Esperanto exclusively in to the New World Order. In fact, I would argue that learning Esperanto would help defeat it.
Esperanto began as the creation of Ludwik Zamenhof, who wanted a neutral language to help people of different cultures communicate. Its roots mostly come from the romance languages and German. The words have a regular spelling and pronunciation, and can freely combine to form new words. The grammar has no exceptions, and only sixteen rules governing its use. A student can gain proficiency relatively easily, reaching a level where they can carry on a half decent conversation after only a few months of study. Compare that with studying most languages in school, where after a year you can ask someone their name and where they live. In fact, learning Esperanto can help with learning other languages, since it lets the student concentrate on building their vocabulary and grammar skills, instead of concentrating on rules with exceptions and exceptions to the exceptions. When considered logically, the idea of a neutral international language makes sense.
Since its inception, Esperanto has attracted a diverse group of individuals, from far left socialists to radical libertarians, from devout Christians to extreme atheists, from curious artists to hardcore linguists, and everything in between. Zamenhof belonged to the Jewish faith, translated the Bible, and created his own philosophy called Homarismo (humanism). While some may say that it sounds like the philosophy of the new world order, most Esperantists do not consider themselves homarismoj (humanists) and view it as something interesting to consider and nothing more. Additionally, Zamenhof’s own writings and speeches certainly do not show him as a servant of any evil agenda, much to the contrary. He never intended Esperanto to replace existing languages, rather to act as an auxiliary tool to give everyone an equal footing when communicating internationally.
Esperanto has had a long history of prosecution by those who would do us harm. Hitler and Stalin both denounced it for the same reason. If people have the ability to communicate without boundaries, they become much harder to manipulate. I recall an incident on a mailing list during the Kosovo conflict. A woman there emotionally asked how Americans could support the war, and the slaughtering of innocent civilians. We all of course didn’t, and asked what she meant. “Oh,” she responded, “The media here says that you all support it, and celebrate in the streets.” We all couldn’t believe it. Most Americans either opposed it, or didn’t even know we fought a war in the first place, and probably couldn’t even find Kosovo on a map. This sort of thing completely exemplified to me Esperanto’s purpose and power.
The Internet and Esperanto have a lot in common, in that both provide a global way to exchange information. The Internet began as a project by DARPA to build an informational infrastructure which could
withstand a nuclear war. At first, only governments and colleges had access. Gradually, access trickled down to the masses. The government thought they could use it as a method of control. Al Gore proudly helped fund it, hence his claims of inventing it. His reasons had nothing to do with benevolence and everything to do with control. They supposedly even referred to the WWW as the World Wide Wiretap.
Of course, since information seeks the quickest path to greater distribution much as electricity seeks the quickest path to ground, the masses quickly began using it as a tool of freedom. The net has always had a strong libertarian contingent even in the earliest of the hacker cultures, and this inherent freedom resonates to this day in software design. Now, anyone can read information on all sorts of things to empower them and expose the criminal elite which has begun taking over the governments of the world to impose a one world agenda. Just look at Climategate. Now, governments want to control the net, and impose China-style censorship, as has recently begun in Australia.
This represents a trend towards greater control. We have the elites running scared. If the Obama administration thinks they can wheel out Esperanto to further their iron grip within a velvet glove, I say permesu ilin. Let them. It will only backfire in the same way as their pathetic attempts to usurp the Internet to their own ends. George Soros actually speaks Esperanto natively, so I have something to say to him. Se vi pensas ke vi povas uzi Esperanton por helpi viajn tiranecajn celojn, vi estas malkorekta! Vi malsukcesos! Boneco chiam superfortas! Translation: If you think that you can use Esperanto to further your tyrannical agenda, you are wrong! You will fail! Good always prevails!
I started writing this article some time ago as a response to the criticisms by some rightly concerned individuals, and finished it today, on Zamenhof’s 150Th birthday. Today has felt very joyful to me, largely thanks to Twitter. Many Esperanto friends world-wide have tweeted in Esperanto. Google even put up an Esperanto flag with some information. The language has received a lot of good press today, and I hope people will give it a try. I don’t think Esperanto will ever become the international auxiliary language, but it has developed a culture all of its own, and that has value. Today, I think back on the fun times I have had,and the weird people I have met because of my involvement with Esperanto. I wish it another 150 years of success!
If you would like to learn more about Esperanto, you can try the following sites: Esperanto USA provides information to people in America, where most of my readers reside, and lernu.net provides free courses. Mi esperas ke vi trovos lerni chi tiun facilan lingvon.
