I think you’re at once trivializing and attempting to characterize the “Northerners” as a roughly homogeneous unit, which is of course not the case.
But the mentality of self-sufficiency, mistrust of authority and hard work could be a trait of Anabaptists Calvinists, Lutherans, and other religious groups which emigrated to the British colonies during the 17th and 18th Centuries, carrying on in some way to this day. “Live free or die” and “Don’t tread on me” are indeed living attitudes.
But is this predilection for “Puritanism” which characterized some of its early immigrants the reason why Bostonians of the 21st Century in particular have embraced the “secular Puritanism” / totalitarian leaning one observes today?
Thats a stretch. There’s much more at play., just as the early immigrants weren’t merely hard working religious farmers.
I believe so for several reasons. Both Mormons and American progressives are divergent intellectual descendants of the Puritans, and both demand strict adherence to specific codes of behavior. Even American Catholics are far more rigid in their approach to faith than their European and South American counterparts. For this reason it can be argued that the Northern predilection for organized society is a double edged sword, that can be harnessed for either good or evil.
Very interesting perspective that I had not thought of before. I have thought of the South as a fallen civilization for a long time, but the idea of the North as one is new. The civilization that conquered mine, destroyed by its own toxic ideology.
I think it would be better for America if Northerners saw themselves as a specific culture with distinctive characteristics instead of as the default form of a global society.
I think you’re at once trivializing and attempting to characterize the “Northerners” as a roughly homogeneous unit, which is of course not the case.
But the mentality of self-sufficiency, mistrust of authority and hard work could be a trait of Anabaptists Calvinists, Lutherans, and other religious groups which emigrated to the British colonies during the 17th and 18th Centuries, carrying on in some way to this day. “Live free or die” and “Don’t tread on me” are indeed living attitudes.
But is this predilection for “Puritanism” which characterized some of its early immigrants the reason why Bostonians of the 21st Century in particular have embraced the “secular Puritanism” / totalitarian leaning one observes today?
Thats a stretch. There’s much more at play., just as the early immigrants weren’t merely hard working religious farmers.
I believe so for several reasons. Both Mormons and American progressives are divergent intellectual descendants of the Puritans, and both demand strict adherence to specific codes of behavior. Even American Catholics are far more rigid in their approach to faith than their European and South American counterparts. For this reason it can be argued that the Northern predilection for organized society is a double edged sword, that can be harnessed for either good or evil.
Very interesting perspective that I had not thought of before. I have thought of the South as a fallen civilization for a long time, but the idea of the North as one is new. The civilization that conquered mine, destroyed by its own toxic ideology.
I think it would be better for America if Northerners saw themselves as a specific culture with distinctive characteristics instead of as the default form of a global society.