According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto),

Esperanto's goal was:

> 
> to create an easy-to-learn and politically neutral language that
>  would foster peace and international understanding between people with
>  different regional and/or national languages.)
> 
> 
> 

How would a new language foster those things? Why won't the current languages do? Did the advocates subscribe to the Sapir-Whorf view of linguistic determinism? Since that hypothesis has now been widely rejected, what are the motivations of the Esperanto people today?