renegade
The renegade (from Latin re "again" and negare "deny", "negate") is originally an apostate from a religion , nowadays also a generalized apostate from a belief system or value system ( art , religion, worldview ). In a purely religious context, such a person is also called an apostate . In contrast to the convert , neither the renegade nor the apostate have to switch to a new system.
The renegade is disappointed by the system he has turned away from or, in retrospect, sees himself betrayed, used or betrayed by it. As a rule, he sees himself as a kind of resistance fighter who rejects the ruling power of the system and the belief systems that it implies. As a result, he sometimes offers passive or even active resistance.
history
The renegado was a fixed term in medieval Spain at the time of the Reconquista , the conflicts between Christian and Muslim rulers. Here, however, from a Christian point of view, he referred to a person who had fallen away from Christianity and converted to Islam under Islamic occupation , who was negatively assigned this word by Christian Spaniards. The Renegado did not reject the conviction that prevailed in his area of life, but adapted himself.
etymology
The word renegade or renegado has Latin and Spanish roots. It generally designates a person who negates, says " No " (negado), and does this against (re-) a prevailing opinion. On the other hand, the particle “re-” in the Spanish context can also mean the renewed negation of the acceptance of the Christian faith that has already taken place.
The first-mentioned etymology also does not seem to fit the historical background, as the Renegado simply adopted the conviction that prevailed in his area of life, namely the Islamic faith. His Christian compatriots were mostly unable to maintain Christian rule over their fellow believers. The term renegade was thus an early political battle term in this use. Even if the Christian princes had lost their wars, they wanted to leave the new rulers with a potential for unrest by means of those who would not accept the Islamic faith in order not to be regarded as renegades among the Christians.
Political renegades
Political renegades are people who have not given up certain basic ideologues such as class struggle , Marxism , socialism , liberalism , monarchism , nationalism , racism or anti-Semitism , but who nevertheless change political camps.
Lenin criticizes z. B. in his book entitled The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, that the social democrat Kautsky in his writings transformed Marx into a “dozen liberal”, mixed bourgeois and proletarian democracy and fell under the illusion of a commonality between the exploited and the exploiters The terms retained are being eroded and the political camp is changing.
The reason for the criticism can also be a positioning in a scientific dispute, such as the historians' dispute .
