And this very question helped motivate the rise of the New Christian Right, and its progeny such as the Contract with America and Newt Gingrich. This is all applied Calvinism. People, awash with evil, only change their behavior when subjected to discipline, shame, and punishment according to early Calvinism. In the early 1800s the Unitarians argued people were basically good, and the ensuing battle led to the Unitarians seizing Harvard from the Calvinists in 1805. Since people were thought to be basically good, they did bad things in part because of ignorance and destructive social conditions. Thus pressure for public education and a government role in social welfare.
The Republicans of today are attempting to revisit this battle, and reimpose Calvinist theory on public policy. Recall that the ideal City on a Hill was a theocracy run by men.
-Chip
----- Original Message ----- From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Thursday, December 23, 1999 3:47 AM Subject: Kant, Christianity, and Free Will
> From Henry Staten, "'Radical Evil' Revived: Hitler, Kant, Luther,
> Neo-Lacanianism," _Radical Philosophy_ 98:
>
> ***** [Joan] Copjec and [Jacob] Rogozinski are both concerned, though in
> different ways, to save Kant from his optimistic turn in order to liberate
> from his text what they consider his crucial insight: the ineradicable evil
> of human nature. But if this is what they are looking for, why not look to
> Luther and Calvin, who do truly assert just such a doctrine
<<snip>>