Neutrality has nothing to do with heartlessness and lack of solidarity
(13 March 2022) Edit. Ambiguously and contrary to the country's good tradition, the Federal Council endorsed on February 28, 2022, the EU's far-reaching sanctions against Russia. Switzerland is neither a member of the EU nor of NATO, nor is it part of any alliance with Ukraine or Russia. The Federal Council was expected to find a diplomatically balanced and Swiss solution.
In addition to the enthusiastic approval of being on the "right" side at last, Berne's stance has also caused a great deal of misunderstanding in Switzerland and abroad. Our country is in danger of losing the humanitarian leverage it enjoyed to now for its good offices, the ICRC and as a neutral location for international organizations. In addition, Switzerland, as a small state, risks falling into the trap of global politics.
At the time of its creation, our online publication "Swiss Standpoint" took as a reference Carl Spitteler's position paper entitled "Our Swiss Viewpoint".1
Due to current events, we refer to this text and publish some extracts.
Preliminary remark:
At the beginning of the First World War, a clear conflict of opinion developed in Switzerland between the German-speaking and the French-speaking parts of the country. Faced with this dangerous rift for the country's cohesion, the writer and future Nobel Prize winner Carl Spitteler (1845–1924) felt it was his duty as a citizen to formulate a neutral and reasonable Swiss position on the war in neighboring countries in order to strengthen the country's internal cohesion.
In his speech Spitteler succeeded in elaborating a Swiss standpoint: to be neutral in war does not mean to be insensitive or unconcerned about one’s neighbours. The misery of others, whether they be French, German, English ..., does touch us. However, as fortune would have it, we live in a neutral state that will not become embroiled in the chaos of war. This does not call for arrogance but for humility.
Speaking over 100 years ago, Spitteler evinced, by subtle arguments and a strong sense of empathy, an attitude capable of distinguishing between human feelings, states at war, nationalism and neutrality. His words are as relevant today as they were then.
Throughout the periods of WWI and WWII, the Cold War and the rampant globalisation of recent decades, Switzerland consistently adopted a neutral and mediatory role.
This uniquely Swiss standpoint is a prudent, humane and unassuming stance set on preserving justice and neutrality, not only in the face of brute force. It caught the world’s attention a hundred years ago and still does so today.
To maintain this attitude in the world that confronts us today is the challenging task.
“Our Swiss Standpoint”2
by Carl Spitteler*
“[…] We must be aware that basically no member of a war-waging nation considers a neutral conviction justified.
They can make an effort and try to apprehend it but they cannot understand it in their hearts. We seem to them like an indifferent person in a mourning house. However, we are not at all indifferent. I call on the feelings of all of you to bear witnesses that we are not indifferent. However, since we do not move, we seem indifferent. Therefore, our bare existence is a scandal. Initially it seems unpleasantly strange, gradually provoking impatience; finally, it appears disgusting, infringing and insulting. Even more so a word of non-approval! An independent judgment!
The patriotically involved is deeply convinced of his good cause and also of the rogue character of his enemies. Everything within him that does not hurt, hope and fear, that does not cry and mourn, cries indignation. And now there is someone, who calls himself neutral and takes sides for the rogues! This is because a fair judgment is seen as partisanship with the enemy. And no merits, no good reputation, no name will save him from condemnation. Quite the contrary, even more so! Apart from disloyalty and betrayal you will be accused of ingratitude.
Just like the officers who are shot at on the battleground, famous people are shot at in their scriptoriums. Soon there is none left, who has not been demonized and solemnly excluded from any temple. You get totally confused. You do no longer know if you are a blessing for humankind or are you scum. But how can we counter those dangerous threats?
Those who are allowed to be silent may consider themselves fortunate. Who may not keep his silence may act according to the proverb: Do as you must, and do not care for the consequences. In order to save our neutral souls, we are provided with propaganda brochures. Usually, they are written in an over-loud tone, very often like commands, every now and then almost furibund.
The more they come in a scholarly manner, the more radical they are. Such things often miss the target. It doesn’t appeal to us, if we get the impression that the authors would like to gobble us. Have those gentlemen lost their tentacles so that they do no longer know how to speak to other peoples and how to avoid speaking to them? In view of such impositions, we appeal to the friend that has gone wild and to the normal, peaceful and friendly person whom we hope to find again when the war is over, as well as to the entire past and our beautiful, trustful and unbiased spiritual exchange. […]
To retrieve the right attitude from our hearts
Preserving the right attitude is not as strenuous as it sounds if we apply logic. Yes, if we had to use our heads! But we do not need to use our heads; we can retrieve it from our hearts.
What would you do if a funeral procession goes past? As a spectator of a tragedy, what do you feel? Shock and devotion. And how do you behave? You stand there in quiet, devoted and honest silence. We do not have to learn that, do we?
Well, fate’s favourable exception has allowed us to be spectators of the dreadful tragedy that is currently going on in Europe. Mourning prevails on the stage, behind the scenes there is murder. Wherever you listen with your heart, be it to your right or to your left, you hear nothing but moaning and sobbing, and it sounds alike in all nations, regardless of the different languages.
Well, let us fill our hearts with silent emotion and our souls with devotion in view of this enormous amount of international suffering, and let us take our hats off.
Then we take the right, the neutral – the Swiss Standpoint.”
| * Carl Spitteler lived from 1845 to 1924. The studied theologian worked as a teacher, editor, free-lance journalist and finally as a free author. 1905 he got the honorary degree from the University of Zurich and 1915 from de University of Lausanne. 1919 he was the first native Swiss to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. With his speech of December 1914 entitled “Our Swiss Standpoint” he took, at the beginning of World War I a stand in favour of a neutral Swiss attitude based on reason, which should strengthen the inner cohesion of the country. |
Source: Extracts from Carl Spitteler’s speech. Unser Schweizer Standpunkt. Pro Libro 2009. (Translation CC, Subtitles added by the editors of «Swiss Standpoint»)
1 https://www.schweizer-standpunkt.ch/why-swiss-standpoint.html
2 The full speech can be found in PDF here: https://www.schweizer-standpunkt.ch/why-swiss-standpoint.html?file=files/schweizer_standpunkt/PDF/2020/en/Spitteler_e_20200930.pdf&cid=4108