Andrei Pleșu: Patriotic fragments from Caragiale

(Re-readings. I do not signal them for the first time, but I always have them in my ears and under my eyes when I look around...)

# From "Moftangii" (Ch. "Rromânul")

The moftangiu is eminently Romanian; despite this, before being Romanian, he is a moftangiu […].

The moftangiu is a determined patriot, an exclusive nationalist, Romanian to the marrow of his bones! Everyone must know this!

Governmentally, or, when unfortunately this is not possible, oppositional, the moftangiu congratulates Romania in any case, a displacement in the second case, in both cases he loves it to madness. Therefore, he hates with fury everything that is not Romanian, everything that is not national.

He values agriculture, but dreams of a great national industry that will free us from the tribute we pay to foreigners: what frightens him is a conquest of Romania on the economic field by the infamies of foreigners, aided by the stepchildren of his homeland!

He is a party man, as long as it is only about views on domestic politics. However, when it comes to presenting ourselves to foreigners, he believes that all Romanians must forget their little passions and, extending his hand in friendship, must face the united foreigners against the economic, political, social, and cultural danger of the Nation! The common enemy is the foreigner! Down with Foreignism!! Long live Romanianism!!! Anyone who thinks otherwise... is a traitor! […]

[…] The moftangiu can have or not a profession, can be poor or rich, stupid or smart, barren or spirited, young, old, of one sex or another or both, he has been, is, and will be a true Romanian... May God protect you from attacking his Romania from afar, for the Romanian moftangiu is here ready to crush you. […]

# From "Verde Românii"

We, the green Romanians, proceed from the following healthy principles of national progress:

To love one's own nation is beyond the power of one who does not hate other nations.

A nation cannot have enemies in its own defects; its enemies are only and only the qualities of other nations. Therefore, a nation should not waste time thinking about how to correct its defects and how to cultivate its qualities; it has something more profitable to do: to count its defects and to vilify them or directly to attribute the qualities of others to them.

Therefore, a nation must always have a horror of the others, since the existence of one has no other condition than the complete compromise of another. Hence, the imperative necessity of the most extreme national exclusivism.

# From "The Statutes of the Society 'Verde Românii'"

Ch. I […] Art. 1. A Romanian Society named "Verde Românii" is established in Romania.

Art. 2. Anyone can be part of this society, regardless of sex, age, or political color, as long as they are a green Romanian or Romanian woman.

Art. 3. The emblem of the society will be a green Romanian crushing under his heel the serpent of foreignism, which hisses and hisses.

Ch. II […] Art. 4. Members of any sex and age of the society "Verde Românii" are obliged to hate everything foreign and everything that comes from abroad, everything that is not green Romanian or everything that does not come from a green Romanian.

Then follow several articles that detail everything that is not green Romanian and must be systematically rejected by any member of the society, such as, for example, non-Romanian feelings, non-Romanian art, non-Romanian ideas and spirit. Then:

Art. 9. Non-Romanian capital is exempt from this rule. […]

Ch. IV (About the duties of female members) […]

Art. 40. Female members of the society are obliged to be virtuous like some Roman matron.

Art. 41. Female members of the society are obliged to be good Romanian mothers. […]

Art. 45. Once a member becomes a mother, she is obliged to immediately enroll the child in the society "Verde Românii".

Art. 46. Female members are obliged to name their children with foreign names like Reea-Silvia, like Tiberius, like Cicero, like Caracalla, like Cornelia, like Cato, etc.

Art. 47. Mother members are obliged to give their children a maternal education in the mother tongue. Under no circumstances is it allowed to entrust the education of the children to other governesses than green Romanians.

Art. 48. They are obliged to nurse their children themselves, breastfeeding them at the same time with feelings and ideas of green Romanians, according to the statutes at hand.

Art. 49. In the case when a member does not have milk, or, for example, if the mothers' nipple is perforated, or if it is too tight, under no circumstances will she be able to take a foreign wet nurse, who would give the child to suck foreign milk, breastfeeding him at the same time with foreign feelings and ideas; but she will be obliged to take a green Romanian wet nurse, preferably an active member of the society. In the chapter about male members of the society, the statutes impose the same obligations on fathers as on mothers, except, it goes without saying, for the obligations regarding breastfeeding. […]

For conformity, Andrei Pleșu

(With special dedication for "sovereignists").

https://www.dilema.ro/situatiunea/fragmente-patriotice-din-caragiale