The people who created this country built a moral structure around money. The Puritan legacy inhibited luxury and self-indulgence. Benjamin Franklin spread a practical gospel that emphasized hard work, temperance and frugality. Millions of parents, preachers, newspaper editors and teachers expounded the message. The result was quite remarkable.
The United States has been an affluent nation since its founding. But the country was, by and large, not corrupted by wealth. For centuries, it remained industrious, ambitious and frugal.
Over the past 30 years, much of that has been shredded. The social norms and institutions that encouraged frugality and spending what you earn have been undermined. The institutions that encourage debt and living for the moment have been strengthened. The country’s moral guardians are forever looking for decadence out of Hollywood and reality TV. But the most rampant...
Jim Lincoln wrote: There is one other thing, I wanted to point out about Mr. Brooks viewpoint. It is very English, and it was espoused very many years ago. I had an atheistic history professor in University that used a book by an Englishman which said that the American leaders were materialistic. After this class, one wasn't sure who won the Revolution, but I think it was the English. Most of the American Founding Fathers would hardly be considered Christian (nor many of the English leaders for that matter), nevertheless, the Masonic Republic they founded was founded on principles, and as I pointed out, if America didn't have a strong Christian tradition, the moderate American Revolution would never have taken place. If it did happen in a different background had looked like the Revolution that happened in Catholic France a decade or so later.
Your history professor was wrong. If the American leaders were materialistic, how would the English be described, who owned or controlled much of the world at the time?
Brooks misses a big point: His "financial decadence" follows, i.e., is a result of, the moral decadence that precedes it.
There is one other thing, I wanted to point out about Mr. Brooks viewpoint. It is very English, and it was espoused very many years ago. I had an atheistic history professor in University that used a book by an Englishman which said that the American leaders were materialistic. After this class, one wasn't sure who won the Revolution, but I think it was the English.
Most of the American Founding Fathers would hardly be considered Christian (nor many of the English leaders for that matter), nevertheless, the Masonic Republic they founded was founded on principles, and as I pointed out, if America didn't have a strong Christian tradition, the moderate American Revolution would never have taken place. If it did happen in a different background had looked like the Revolution that happened in Catholic France a decade or so later.
Thanks for the information, Tony, I watch regularly the Lehrer News Hour on PBS, and he is suppose to represent the "conservative" position. I knew at worse he was an indifferent Catholic, because the person he usually argues with --isn't. The person he replaced was a devout Catholic.
Jim: For the record, David Brooks is Jewish. This is truly an excellent article full of truth. It shows that the troubles that plague our nation are NOT going to be solved by Republican or Democrat, but by a return to work, thrift, and most of all being content with having what we need and not constantly striving for what we want. Mr. Brooks would stop short of calling this a Biblical idea, but his complimentary application of the "Puritan legacy" indicates that he is at least on the right track.
Wow, a novel article from a secular (Catholic?) which does put a finger on much of the problems of this country, While I would agree that the saying on our coinage, is not really "In God We Trust" (It doesn't specify which god?) really means "Greed Works!" I think he was somewhat wrong, with the idea that this country was built on the glories of money. Puritans put money as a secondary issue, something that you were rewarded with for being a good Christian (not necessarily so), and it was the Christian culture that made it possible for the American Experiment to work, so far, for the Founding Father to make something called the U.S.A.
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Doug Greeley | 3/15/2009
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