The Things They Carried Re: Rove and Wolfowitz's role

Michael Perelman michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Mon Feb 24 09:45:39 PST 2003


Adam Smith's student, John Millar made a similar point centuries ago. Modern family life requires long term planning and thus fits in with the modern Calvinist/Capitalist mindset.

On Mon, Feb 24, 2003 at 12:41:02PM -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
> And why would high-tech be incompatible with backward religious
> views? It fits right in with Adorno's analysis of superstition - when
> reason is drained of all its critical and "spiritual" aspects and
> becomes purely instrumental, it leaves a great opening for occultism.
> A perfect example is George Gilder, the now-busted high priest of
> high tech, who says that fundamentalist Christianity "represent[s]
> and promote[s] the best hope for American democracy and peace,
> capitalist prosperity and progress. Ironically enough, it is the
> so-called reactionaries who offer the best prospects for continued
> American leadership in the world economy in the new era of
> accelerating technological change. Just as the nuclear families of
> Western Europe unleashed the energies of the industrial revolution,
> so the new miracles of modern technology are created and sustained by
> the moral discipline and spiritual incandescence of a culture of
> churches and families. In families, men and women routinely make long
> term commitments and sacrifices that are inexplicable and
> indefensible within the compass of secular hedonist values. Modern
> society, no less than any previous civilization, rests on the
> accumulated moral and spiritual capital embodied in the rock of
> ages." (George Gilder, Men and Marriage, pp. 112-113)
>
> Doug

-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu



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