Dante Alighieri and the New Paradigm for Human Culture by Robert Ingraham

III. The Genius Shapes History Dante Alighieri and the New Paradigm for Human Culture by Robert Ingraham If you can’t speak of the future of mankind, you era—is to redefine the relations among nations, cul- ain’t serious—you’re just babbling. tures, and peoples throughout the world. Helga Zepp- —Lyndon LaRouche, April 12, 2017 LaRouche, the chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, has stated the urgent need for a Dialogue of Civilizations. Preface She has already initiated this effort, stressing the bene- June 26—The human species is blessed with a uni- ficial results which might result from an examination of versal identity, a universal species-nature. For more what has been, historically, the best in these cultures, than sixty years, Lyndon LaRouche has defended that the high points, the renaissances. It is hoped that from unique universality of the human identity against all such an effort will flow a deeper appreciation of those challengers: the singular agapic creative nature of the principles and those beliefs which are common to all, human mind which is universal for every member of those universal principles which have advanced human the human race, that quality of profound love and pro- civilization in many different parts of the world over found creativity which defines mankind’s mission in millennia. the universe. It is precisely that desire which motivates this cur- On May 14-15, 2017 more than one hundred nations rent work on Dante Alighieri. There are those—particu- took part in the One Belt One Road Forum in Beijing, larly among the Anglo-American elite—who would China. Among the participants were twenty-eight heads shatter and fragment the human identity. Under the of state, including those of China, Russia, Indonesia, Turkey, Greece, and the Philip- pines. A close examination of those who participated in Beijing and those now en- gaged in this noble effort to eliminate the dying vestiges of imperial rule, reveals that among the new allies there exists a kalei- doscope of cultures, histories, religions, and races. Every shade and hue of the human race was represented in Beijing. Language groups representing widely divergent ways of articulating human ex- pression were in dialogue. Many of the nations involved have a long history of past rivalries, jealousies, and hostilities, which for some are not merely memories, but exist as areas of mistrust and conflict down Schiller Institute to the present day. Helga Zepp-LaRouche participated in the Belt and Road Forum for The challenge—in the post-imperial International Cooperation. June 30, 2017 EIR The Next Forty Years 29 guise of modern-day existentialist “cultural relativ- I will not recommend any specific translation. Dante ism,” they proclaim that mankind is eternally divided himself warned, “Nothing that is harmonized by the by widely divergent cultures, with different religions, laws of poetry can be changed from its own language to philosophies, and values. In their view, perhaps a syn- another without destroying all its sweetness and har- cretism of ethically acceptable “shared values” might mony.” I have studied numerous translations of Dante allow different nations to “co-exist,” but always within into English, from the 19th Century efforts of Cayley, a geometry of divided, competing interests. They pro- Cary, and Longfellow to the spate of more recent trans- pose a perpetual Tower of Babel, in which people and lations (Binyon, Sayer, Ciardi, Mandelbaum, the Hol- nations become pawns to be profiled and manipulated. landers, and others). Some have great strengths; all of We aim for something far better: a world in which them have weaknesses. In truth, translating Dante’s the true nature of our species may flourish and the prin- Italian poetry and the idea-content of his mind into ciple of the human identity, as understood by Dante, modern-day English is an impossible task, and the vo- shall become the guiding light for future generations. cation of the translator is most unenviable. Just find one you like and start reading! Introduction One word of warning: Only those who share Dante’s Today, and throughout the 20th Century, everything life mission to change the conditions of the world, and to that Dante Alighieri stood for has been under assault. create revolutionary, new potentials within human soci- The academic journals are filled with articles dissecting ety for future generations, will understand what he almost every aspect of his life, his beliefs, and his liter- writes. Those who sit on the sidelines, watching pas- ary work, but the real Dante will not be found there. A sively the decay of the society around them, will under- moral indifference permeates these writings, and Jona- stand nothing. Such individuals are only fit to be judged than Swift’s Laputans show more sense than some of by Dante and put in the appropriate circle of the Inferno. these characters. The worst aspect to so-called “Dante Studies” is reflected in the deference given to the likes of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and other 20th Century exis- I. Historical Specificity tentialists and fascists as to their “authority” on the subject of Dante’s poetic method. It is as if Lucifer were An egregious flaw in much of modern historiogra- appointed to stand judge over the Divine. phy is to take people and events out of their own time. The issue at hand is to grasp the reality of the Although Dante’s is an immortal mind with a universal upward, self-directed evolution of humanity, and to ask message, it is impossible to consider what he did and the question, “How has this been possible?” This is the what he wrote, without understanding the era and the relevant subject matter in considering Dante. This gets realities with which he was confronted. to the heart of Dante’s examination of the Human Mind. Dante lived from 1265 to 1321. Although many It is not enough to simply stand in awe of his poetic think this pre-Renaissance period was one of “medi- skills. A courageous approach to Dante, of this type, eval” ignorance and backwardness, in truth, great prog- promises great benefits to the work before us today. ress had been made in the human condition during the For those who have never invesigated the writings 12th and early 13th centuries. The population of Europe of Dante, I implore you to take the plunge. Dive into the rose from 58 million in 1100 to 79 million in 1250—an deep end. From his poetry and his writings on language increase of 36 percent—with a concurrent, rapid in- and the vernacular in La Vita Nuova (The New Life) crease in urbanization and the emergence of many new and De Vulgari Eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Ver- towns and cities. A great deal of new technology was nacular), to his poetic and philosophical Convivio (The brought on line, including the spread of power genera- Banquet), to his masterpiece on government and soci- tion technologies, primarily waterwheels and wind- ety, De Monarchia (On Monarchy), and, ultimately, to mills, and improvements in mining, agriculture, and his “divine” Commedia, Dante made possible every- shipbuilding. A significant factor in these advances was thing great that subsequently arose in 15th Century the importation of new inventions and techniques from Florence, and it is the monumental repercussions of China, as well as from the Arab world. It was precisely those breakthroughs in human culture which persist this progress in the human condition, this increased down to the present day. mastery over nature, which made the emergence of 30 The Next Forty Years EIR June 30, 2017 Papacy and the Church hierarchy in the degeneracy, de- struction, and financial looting he witnessed during his lifetime. By the time that Dante was first elected to public office in 1295, Italy and most of Europe had become a speculators’ paradise, dominated by Venice, the Lom- bard bankers, and a corrupt and venal Papacy. By 1290 the European population had begun to decline. Agricul- tural and wool production collapsed, food disappeared in many areas, and many smaller and medium-sized towns were abandoned. It was within this downward spiral that Dante waged his war. The economy and the society of Europe all came crashing down in the horrors of the 14th Century. But then, in the midst of unspeak- able human suffering, at what seemed the nadir of human existence, the mind of Dante would resurface, and it would “light the path” for a way forward into a better future. A Brief Initial Biography Dante Alighieri came from a family of minor aris- tocracy. He grew up in the San Piero district of Flor- ence. His mother died when he was ten; when his father died six years later, he came under the guardianship of Brunetto Latini, a Florentine aristocrat, a student of Cicero, and a leader of Florence after he became one of Statue of Dante at Naples. the six ruling Priors of Florence in 1287. At that time, almost every city in northern Italy was Dante, Giotto, and others possible. gripped by ongoing warfare between the Guelph and Nevertheless, Europe was still a fragmented, in- Ghibelline parties. Generally, the Ghibellines were tensely oligarchical society, and by the middle of the loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor, whose power lay 13th Century, the upward curve of progress had been primarily in Germany, and the Guelphs were partisans destroyed. In several of his writings, including the of the Pope, although in reality, it was the usury-cen- Commedia, Dante ties the worsening crisis in Italy to tered Vatican-Venetian-Angevin alliance which defined the emergence of a usurious money economy.

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