The following is editor and publisher Amory Stern‘s Introduction to his collection of previously untranslated essays by the Romanian writer Mihai Eminescu, Old Icons, New Icons. The book is available in both Kindle and paperback editions.
Of peasant ancestry on his father’s side and boasting aristocratic (boyar) maternal roots, the Romanian poet, prose writer, and editorialist Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889) had not put his modest inherited wealth to waste. Educated in the German language since childhood, Eminescu was culturally — if not always geopolitically — an enthusiastic Germanophile. As a young man, he had studied in Vienna and in Bismarck’s Prussia, where he had learned Sanskrit and immersed himself in Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy. He had also been a student of Eugen Dühring.
Eminescu had intellectual precedents in his own country, but he often made radical departures from them. His ideas were influenced by a leading conservative Romanian cultural circle called Junimea, which originally reflected the interests of the old Moldavian boyar class that had been displaced by the liberal bourgeoisie in the nineteenth century. However, there are significant differences between Eminescu’s philosophy and Junimism.
“The Junimists,” notes Hungarian-Jewish historian Nicholas Nagy-Talavera, “wanted literature to be separated from politics; to remain l’art pour l’art, with no social content desirable.” Eminescu rejected this doctrine, and some of his poems are overtly political. Nagy-Talavera summarizes Eminescu’s worldview thus:
Eminescu’s goal — he defines it as his “supreme law” — was the preservation of his country and its ethnic identity . . . Consequently, the national interest must determine every political, educational, and cultural decision. Thus, in Eminescu’s eyes, what he called “American liberalism” (or Western humanitarian values) might imperil the uniqueness of the Romanian ethnic character, and should therefore be rejected . . . He rejected the incomplete and superficial Westernization of 1848. Eminescu recognized only two positive classes in Romania: the nobility, and, above all, the peasantry. Any development must be based on the peasant, and it must be an organic one . . . Eminescu was closer to the peasants than to the boyars.
Eminescu died as a result of medical malpractice in 1889. He was only 39 years old. Foul play has been widely suspected.
This volume showcases Eminescu the essayist. The first essay, “Old Icons, New Icons,” exemplifies his rejection of liberal ideas as alien to his country. He regarded Romania’s contemporary intellectual, political, and economic ruling classes as being composed of treacherous epigones of French ideas that did not fit the Romanian situation. This extended essay also reveals an impressive understanding of economics.
Next is an article criticizing his country’s management of the national finances. Here, in addition to his hatred of usury, is displayed an ability to apply philosophical concepts of time and space to different forms of capital. His critiques of what he considers fraudulent capital are pertinent in our age of debt-driven political economies.
Despite his disgust with key aspects of modern capitalism and his preference for the working classes over the rich, the next editorial places some of his social views on the Right. Eminescu had plenty of appreciation for American poetry, but this piece sheds some light on why “American” was sometimes a term of abuse for him. It should be remembered that he came of age during the time of the American Civil War and the ensuing botched social experiment known as “Reconstruction.” While not morbidly obsessed with race, Eminescu had no use for any kind of ethnic egalitarianism as a governing principle, arguing that such ideas would endanger Romania’s distinct national characteristics. Whatever one’s opinion of this position, a key to understanding Eminescu’s gift of insight is that he sensed plutocratic plots in places where they often lurk: under the cover of promises of vaguely-defined equality.
Eminescu was not one to follow trends. Unreceptive to popular French Decadent-influenced styles, he instead chose to model his verse after the golden age of German Romantic poetry. Whereas most other nineteenth-century Romanian literature was lighthearted, his was deep and often grim. This independent-mindedness also applied to his essays. At a time when other critics of capitalism supported the fledgling socialist movements, Eminescu rejected the latter on philosophical grounds—even as his pro-peasant and pro-worker worldview rendered him lonely on the conservative Right.
It is hoped that this volume improves the reader’s understanding of Eminescu the political thinker. Controversial in his own time, his non-fiction writings are not what would today be called “politically correct.” Whether seen as charming or downright repellent, this aspect of his work should not overshadow his impressive observations on subjects related to economics and political science.
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8 comments
Eminescu influenced very much Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and his Garda de Fier.
It is always good to read here articles about the right artists and thinkers from the Central/Eastern Europe or from Asia, because in the (very good!) books by Kerry Bolton to this topic there are practically no Eastern European or Asian thinkers and artists of the Right (only Japanese Mishima is a seldom exception), no Rumanians, no Poles, no Czechs, no Russians, no Ukrainians, no Belorussians, no Türks, no Tatars, no Iranians, etc. But the world of the Right thinking and Right art is not limited to the Anglosphere (well, and some Italians).
Eminescu is the poet for Romanians. He is so beloved and well known that almost every town in Romania (and Moldova btw), no matter how small, has a street bearing his name. He is studied by every pupil in school, and more thoroughly than any other poet.
However I have a feeling that he is slated for deconstruction. It would be a monumental task, but nothing is too much for libtards. The reason is in his less known works on economy and politics. Eminescu discusses there among many other things the effect of the newly arrived Jewish migrants on the local and national economy, and in particular their habit of using help from the community to dump the prices down until the competition is totally wiped out. This had devastating effects at the time, and Eminescu dared to discuss in public all about it.
I hope the libtard cronies will fail miserably in their heinous endeavours.
Really a foul play.
https://www.descopera.ro/teoria-conspiratiei/4181692-eminescu-moartea-misterioasa-a-unui-geniu
Eminescu – the mysterious death of a genius (in Roumanian, but Google translator can help).
Eminescu was a noted publicist in his lifetime. He wrote on the topic of creditors at the time within his own country and abroad (“The Israelite Matter” 1879). A partial translation made by me, so it’s imperfect:
“Not long ago, the stipulation of interest was heavily enforced: any creditor who would charge interest higher than the legal limit would be obliged to return the sum, and was also subject to penalties. At the end of the 18th century, however, usury laws were combated and their practicality put into question. It was not the role of the state, it was argued, to regulate dealings between creditors and borrowers; that capital should be exchanged freely and with no legal conditions; that money is a form of capital, and as with the price of any good being subject to the economic law of supply and demand, so should the price of interest be subject to the same law. That this would lead to fair competition between creditors, regulating the price of interest and even lowering it overall. Under the influence of the Manchester school alongside other high financial circles, and with the belief that abrogation would result in progress, usury laws were completely removed within the last two decades.
For over a decade we’ve experimented with the free movement of capital, and it seems to us that it was merely enough to remove the legal restrictions for its pernicious effects to follow. Under the regime of universal competition, we’ve found that the very few and most able managed to hoard impressive power and wealth for themselves, as competition and liberty advantages them.
Therefore, in Germany, we find from writings, debates and the press, that all classes, but especially small industrialists and rural landowners, suffer heavily from interest rates. The usurious operations of capitalists, of credit institutions, of banks, are described by Franz Perrot (“In Zwölfter Stunde”, 1879, pg. 84). To halt the abuses of usury, the legislative bodies of Prussia and other German states have formed commissions to propose necessary measures combating such exploitation.
Austria followed the same suit and dismantled its usury laws in 1868. It consequently suffered such abnormal economic conditions that it had to reinstate its laws in Bukovina and Galicia in 1877 due to rampant usury. The perpetrators of usury operating under the regime of liberty, their effects on regions such as Bukovina and Galicia, their methods and tools, their ultimate goals, their debtors, and so on, are all known to us courtesy of the Austrian public administrative and judicial authorities, debates surrounding the law in July of 1877*, as well as various topical writings.*
* Das Gesetz vom 19. Juli 1877 zur Abhilfe wider unredliche Vorgänge bei Creditgeschäften (Wuchergesetz)
* Der Wucher in der Bukowina, Julius Platter (1844-1923), professor at the University of Czernowitz
Also a translated fragment from Das Gesetz, which can be found online in original:
Abg. Wurm: “Through the abolition of usury laws and the fact that usury capital is not even subjected to the small restraint of taxation for high, even exaggerated profits, capital has achieved unconditional domination and omnipotence in society and the state.”
“It can already be said that the craftsmen and farmers are in rapid decline; because according to the numbers of bailiffs in the city and in the country, thousands of livelihoods are destroyed every year, and according to the statistical reports from 1874, it is officially confirmed that in the year mentioned at least 10,000 farmers became homeless in Cisleithania alone.”
That’s interesting. I sometimes have a fleeting envie to study Romanian as the most exotic Romance language. I know several of its kindred, so I have a bit of an advantage. It’s so big, so mysterious, and the home of Dracula. Was Eminescu‘s poetry written in German or Romanian?
Eminescu’s poetry was written in Romanian and is considered an innovation in the Romanian language. Although stately, his use of language is altogether more laconic than the way it is rendered in English translations of his poems.
Wow, thanks for your reply. I ordered your book.
It’s amazing what you can find here at Counter Currents — though I studied Art History at UCLA, I never managed to get Philosophy or many Literature classes, so now I have been introduced to a rare poet and philosopher from tiny, far-off Romania. I would love to know what he would have thought of the political mess we have in our own n current America.
Thank you, Greg Johnson et.al. for widening my world and my fuzzy brain. We all should send a few (or many) ‘Thank You Dollars’ to keep these world-widening ideas and philosophical enlightenments coming our way.
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