Socialite Homaitists
The Socialite Homaitists (historically known as the Socialite Homaitist Movement) were a group of very liberal Homaitists who advocated for a gradual establishment of government and end to property, in contrast to the almost immediate approach advocated for by other Old Homaitist groups. The origin of the Socialite Homaitist Movement is unclear, but the group was organized no later than 1843 and the Movement associated with it was founded in 1846. For virtually all of their existence, the Socialites were based in Ratinethos, although smaller sects of the Socialites did establish themselves in other parts of the nation. As a movement, they overwhelmingly focused on and were based in the urban corridors of the Adborthos-Yolatho Republic, and in part because of this the movement was extremely successful.
The first Socialite Homaitists to establish themselves had done so by about 1844. Garyi Lezana, who was one of the founding members of the Movement, is generally considered to be the first major Socialite Homaitist figure. Lezana paved the way for a wide variety of other Socialites, such as Hale Seondes, Kaila Saphare, Harisia Onazes, and Saphod Onari, the latter of whom would go on to write The Modern Homaitist Manifesto. By around 1855, the Socialites were a significant power in Homaitism and, although they were not necessarily popular, provided many of the more significant philosophical and political interpretations of Homaitist theory. Their approaches were not liked by the Old Homaitists, however, and the two groups were constantly in conflict throughout the 1860s and 1870s. The movement peaked in popularity and follower number around 1864.
While the Socialites declined throughout the late-1860s and 1870s, the Movement itself remained rather steady during the period. The core of the movement–that being its philosophical and political base–remained more-or-less untouched, and well into the 1870s the Socialite Homaitists provided a significant body of literature to Homaitism. In 1877, however, with Onari's The Modern Homaitist Manifesto, the movement began to definitively break apart. The ideology of the Socialites was effectively copied wholesale into Modern Homaitism, and thus there no longer seemed to be a reason to support or be a part of the movement. Nonetheless, parts of the Socialite Homaitist Movement remained cohesive enough to keep the group alive. Things only got worse for the remainder of the group, however, as it was essentially blacklisted by the Old Homaitists and prevented from attending the Homaitist National Convention in 1877 and 1878. After struggling to keep the few remaining Socialites together, in 1878 the Movement folded, and virtually all of those left in the Movement joined the Modern Homaitists.
The Socialite Homaitists played a large part in not just crafting the Modern Homaitist ideology, but getting it off the ground in the first place. For one thing, their continued existence between c. 1843 and 1878 gradually made the ideas they espoused much more palatable, and thus gave the Modern Homaitists and Onari in particular an advantage with the public. For another thing, had the Socialite Homaitists not largely jumped ship to the Modern Homaitists, it is unlikely that they would have survived for any more than a few years–there were no true Modern Homaitist figures of authority beyond Onari until the Socialites joined their cause. The power of the Socialites was not lost on Modern Homaitists; in 1887 the Modern Homaitists honored the Socialites, and did so again in 1977 and 1987.
Overview
The Socialite Homaitists were in their early history something of an informal movement. Although in practice the Socialite Homaitist Movement corresponded with the establishment of the mainstream Socialites, the proto-Socialites and early Socialites were grouped only by loose association. The movement was also heavily localized in its early days–almost all of the original Socialites were based out of Ratinethos, and it was not until the movement came of age in the 1840s and 1850s that even a plurality of Socialites were based somewhere other than Ratinethos.
Socialite Homaitists were by and large a reaction to the ever-larger body of Homaitists who sought the immediate end of property upon their ascension to power. Of the movement, Garyi Lezana said: "We want to fight the powers that be which call for such a destructive approach as the immediate end of property." Saphod Onari concurred, saying "Property removal cannot be immediate; this we knew. Such ideals are politically catastrophic." Some Homaitists were less more soft-spoken on the matter: Deorizs Vesey, a Kryfona Socialite, rejected the ideals of the Old Homaitists and called outright for a political revolution against the 'Old Guard' of Homaitism. An entire periodical–the Homaitin-paryomesta–was established by several of the more radical Socialites in 1852, and did not cease its criticisms of the Old Homaitists until it was bought out by the modern Homaitin periodical in 1901.
We are not but a movement of the urbanite liberal scum so oft decried as killing this nation–rather we are a movement that seeks to actually make Homaitism more conservative, not unlike making a clock tick in reverse.
The ideals of the Socialites were never properly cemented–actually, one of the only things the Socialites could agree upon was that the Old Homaitists wanted to establish a Homaitist utopia far quicker than was practical. On most other issues, the prevailing opinions were those of the philosophers and the political theorists of the time. Most prominently, the majority of all Socialites simply agreed to the principles that Homaitin-paryomesta did (which were those of a far more gradual change from property to no property and small government to big government) simply on the basis that it was published. Even within the Ratinethos camp, however, these ideals were far from universal. For example, Ratinethos-based Socialite Danha Deones advocated that "...property [ought to] be immediately dissolved, but bit-by-bit rather than immediately and universally."
See also
