History of American SocialismsNoyes, John Humphrey
History
History of American Socialisms
Noyes, John Humphrey
Communism -- United States; Socialism -- United States
Undoubtedly the Socialists will think we make too much of the Revival
movement; and the Revivalists will think we make too much of the
Socialistic movement; and the politicians will think we make too much
of both, in assigning them important places in American history. But
we hold that a man's deepest experiences are those of religion and
love; and these are just the experiences in respect to which he is
most apt to be ashamed, and most inclined to be silent. So the nation
says but little, and tries to think that it thinks but little, about
its Revivals and its Socialisms; but they are nevertheless the deepest
and most interesting passages of its history, and worth more study as
determinatives of character and destiny, than all its politics and
diplomacies, its money matters and its wars.
Doubtless the Revivalists and Socialists despise each other, and
perhaps both will despise us for imagining that they can be
reconciled. But we will say what we believe; and that is, that they
have both failed in their attempts to bring heaven on earth, _because_
they despised each other, and would not put their two great ideas
together. The Revivalists failed for want of regeneration of society,
and the Socialists failed for want of regeneration of the heart.
On the one hand the Revivalists needed daily meetings and continuous
criticism to save and perfect their converts; and these things they
could not have without a thorough reconstruction of domestic life.
They tried the expedient of "protracted meetings," which was really a
half-way attack on the fashion of the world; but society was too
strong for them, and their half-measures broke down, as all
half-measures must. What they needed was to convert their churches
into unitary families, and put them into unitary homes, where daily
meetings and continuous criticism are possible;--and behold, this is
Socialism!
On the other hand the Socialists, as often as they came together in
actual attempts to realize their ideals, found that they were too
selfish for close organization. The moan of Macdonald was, that after
seeing the stern reality of the experiments, he lost hope, and was
obliged to confess that he had "imagined mankind better than they
are." This was the final confession of the leaders in the Associative
experiments generally, from Owen to the last of the Fourierites; and
this confession means, that Socialism needed for its complement,
regeneration of the heart;--and behold, this is Revivalism!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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