Een hevig gewarrel. Humanitair idealisme en socialisme in Nederland rond de eeuwwisseling

Abstract

De Rooy thinks Romein’s analysis of the ‘petites religions’ is peculiarly ambivalent. Firstly, Romein situates these religions in the higher classes, whereas Romein’s own discussion of this period shows that these movements appealed to all classes. Secondly, Romein has difficulty with interpreting the relation between these metaphysical oriented movements and groups of social reformers. Romein seems to ignore the fact that often people were interested and active in both. The important Dutch socialist politician Pieter Jelles Troelstra (1860-1930) for example – just as a lot of socialistic workers – was very much interested in spiritualism. And thirdly, De Rooy believes that Romein’s small faiths are highly heterogeneous. Romein believes them merely to share a certain amount of civilian anarchism. De Rooy believes it to be Romein’s conviction that although socialism and the ‘petites religions’ emerged from the same idealistic motives, the small faiths were doomed to be defeated by a much more sophisticated theory and a much more practical battle as to be found in socialism.[1] This is why the profound socialist Romein depicts small faiths in such a negative manner. De Rooy accuses Romein of a Whig-interpretation of socialism underlying his analysis of the small faiths. De Rooy thinks Romein is treating the small faiths too harshly. Similar to the socialists, followers of the ‘petites religions’ wanted social improvement. They were merely using a different method than the socialists. Socialists wanted to improve social circumstances on a public and political level. People involved in the small faiths, however, doubted whether politics could truly change the nature of man. It was in the inherent evil human nature that the real problem of social evils could be found. Following the idea of ‘Lebensreform ist Selbstreform’, the small faiths would focus on individual conversion. Multiplied by millions this would in the end result in a natural and humane society.[2] At first the socialists would take this approach as decadent and disturbing, but eventually the socialist movement realised that these believers could be recruited easily for the socialist cause. De Rooy shows that Van Eeden was eventually adopted by the socialist Saks as a “little brother, even though a weird brother.”[3] Interestingly, by ending his article with this statement, De Rooy seems to reduce ‘petites religions’ again to its relevance for socialism. Socialism and the small faiths were similar in their aim for social improvement – De Rooy seems to argue – socialism just needed some time to acknowledge their kinship. [1] P. de Rooy, ‘Een Hevig Gewarrel. Humanitair Idealisme en Socialisme in Nederland rond de Eeuwwisseling’, BMGN (1991) 625-640: 626. [2] De Rooy, ‘Een Hevig Gewarrel’, 639. Perhaps the individual character of this quest for social reform, reflects De Rooy’s own experiences in the 1970s when something similar was occurring. [3] Ibidem, 640. ‘broertje toch al is het een rare broeder’