19 - English Socialism as English religion

Summary

Social questions are the vital questions of the day. They take the place of religion.

(Beatrice Potter, i.e. Beatrice Webb, 22 April 1884, in ed. N. and J. Mackenzie, The Diary of Beatrice Webb, 1982–5, I, p. 115)

The religious spirit is an influence suffused through life, not a function that is performed by an organ, even if that organ is called a Church.

(J. R. MacDonald, Parliament and Democracy, 1920, p. 9)

Only when western civilization has shaken off the shackles of the past and created a new social order worthy of the human dignity of the common man, will democracy and religion be once more realized in human society. Till then both must remain faiths, filled with prophetic anger at the sight of the nations and societies which use their name in vain.

(R. H. S. Crossman, Plato Today, 1937 p. 300)

It may be desirable to state that this chapter is the work of a cynical Conservative who has never had the slightest enthusiasm for the rhetoric of progress, virtue and improvement, yet who wishes to do justice to English Socialism, which is one of the forms taken by the rhetoric of progress, virtue and improvement, and which, during the last hundred years, has made it impossible for English political discussion to be conducted without reference to it.

By English Socialism is meant here not the Labour Party nor the syndicalist, co-operative and trade union movements, though all four have been servile to its imprint.