On Feb 9, 2007, at 4:21 PM, Auguste Blanqui wrote:
> a small but quite influential group of Protestant clergymen
Or, to quote Lenin, better fewer but better?
Yes, of course, there's never one unitary thing. Reality is always complex and contradictory. But Protestant notions of individualism, hard work, and self-reliance have long been very influential in American politics and culture. You can see it all over today, and I don't think the political culture of today just dropped out of the sky, or the mind of Karl Rove.
I used to have, but have since lost, a copy of a wonderful column that Adolph Reed wrote, exclaiming how sick he was of hearing about the wonders of the black church, which he always found to be a conservatizing influence. But Adolph, like me, grew up Catholic, and alienated from the dominant Protestant culture.
Doug