Het "protest" in de samenleving

Samenvatting

An examination of the social role of protest based on a critique of an essay 'The Counterpoint in Society' by W. F. Wertheim, included in the book Weerklank op het werk van Jan Romein (Influence of the Work of Jan Romein, 1953). Whereas personal protest has been well investigated by psychologists, the social aspects of protest have remained largely untouched. Wertheim quotes as an example of social protest the Sunday activities of people as opposed to their weekday activities. Mass participation in sports events may be interpreted as a protest against bureaucratic rule in the office, a kind of counterpoint to the basic melody of people's lives. Protest is classified into functional and instit'ized. Conscious protest activities can become a menace to the established order, eg the 'antisocial' activities of German students in the 19th century or the riot which ended Dutch rule in Belgium in 1830. The distinction between the basic melody and the counterpoint is not always easy to make-this difficulty is illustrated by the Belgian rising of 1830 against the Dutch and the Dutch rising against Spain (1566-48), where elements of social order and social protest existed on both sides. I. Langnas.