May I please have your thoughts on this....?

Question

Guiseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), an Italian nationalist leader said the following:

"Every Age has it's own peculiar faith...........Any attempt to translate into facts the mission of one Age with the machinery of another, can only only end in an indefinite series of abortive efforts. Defeated by the utter want of proportion between the means and the end, such attempts might produce martyrs, but never lead to victory."

Answer 1

Here's a stab:

I think he's talking about 'faith' in a broad sense here - the worldview that is formed based on what people know and believe at a given time period (this includes religious faith but also means a common worldview that people share). Their worldview gives them a shared idea of life's meaning and maybe a shared view of different goals. E.g. western democracies in the 1950s had that communism was a major threat (to god, country, rights, etc.) and that it needed to be stopped.

We need to consider that these concepts and views were formed in the past and that the very people who had them were formed by that time period (its science, its religion, etc.). We can't separate that when trying to use what was developed in the past today. We may now have better tools (the machinery) which includes new scientific thoughts, new religious concepts, new machines that can do things, etc. but to use these things to pursue what people in another time period thought was the important thing to do WITHOUT considering whether it's valid TODAY and FOR US, is going to lead to failure. It will 'produce martyrs' because people will become ideologically attached to the cause they've adopted from the past and pursue it only to fail.

I don't really understand what he means by 'defeated by the utter want of proportion between the means and the end'. He's saying, I think, that a people may now have the means to achieve what people in the past wanted to do (the end). And that the means itself is WAY MORE than enough to achieve the goal (the end). But then I don't get how this defeats them -- is it because the end (goal) itself was defined by the struggle -- that it wasn't so easy to achieve? Again, taking into account the fact that we need to consider development of things based on a people's knowledge, their time period, etc.?

Answer 2

At best, it's badly phrased. At worst, the statement defeats itself with it's own proof.

"Every age has its own peculiar faith" - as if each age has one and only one faith, which is already not true, but we'll move on.

"... can only end in an indefinite series of abortive efforts" means the result is maybe or maybe not a failure, which means he just wasted our time in reading this line. Is the "series" indefinite or just the language (translation?) used?

The last line speaks to me of bacterial and viral infections that were once described as spiritual afflictions, but again Mazzini uses poetry instead of concise language...

Or in any case, he was probably writing in Italian and the English translation could just be in error, which would explain the confusion.

Or perhaps Mazzini puts too much faith in poetic speech to convey his meaning while I prefer more direct and concise language. This too is nothing new, however, as there were others that prefered direct language in Mazzini's time as well.

Answer 3

Sounds like a deconstructionist speaking in his typical all-or-nothing language. Notice the words "every," "any," "only," "utter," and "never." It's wishful thinking, but few things in life happen as all-or-nothing events.

How about this instead: There are certain similarities and differences among all religions throughout history.

Notice the lack of absolutes in this statement? It's much easier to prove this than the guy you quoted.

I would think that the things of my faith which have remained relatively unchanged throughout history are the most certain.

Answer 4

Doesn't work. The Jewish religion has survived age after age and is still relevant to today. Same with the Christian faith. Mazzini has no concept of the Bible and the power of the Living God. Nor did he have knowledge of history or prophecy.

Answer 5

It makes a lot of sense. Look at how religions practice today.

Their rituals are different now then they were even 70 years ago.

The same goes for how they teach, or what they say is "gods" will, this goes for all religions. How do you think pre westerners would have looked at you if you told them there was going to be a rapture? And that all of gods people were going to magically dissapear.

What it says is: people will continue to fight over religion until there is no religion.

Answer 6

Sounds like wars between different religious countries to me.

Answer 7

a correct statement! the law and actions of Moses would be condemned today as extremist and fanatical!

Answer 8

God Rules

Peace and Love

Answer 9

nothing la