I just felt like continuing our class discussion about how much Puritan influence remains in the United States since I didn't think we had enough time to finish the talk in class today. Personally, I feel that the Puritan tradition of education is certainly pervasive in the New England area, with so many elite universities in these areas. Along with this, the idea of having to work hard for personal gain is a widely held American belief. However, I still feel that it's a great stretch to say that our society today is still rooted in the Puritan model.
While religion and belief in God remain powerful forces in America, they certainly aren't what they used to be. I would even argue that the emphases on the individual and on wealth have long ago supplanted God as the dominant American ideals. Therefore, I feel that it would be foolish to say that our society, which has become more and more secular, is closely related to a society in which everything centered around God. Thoughts on this?
-Bryce Cody
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I certainly think that our society has moved away from much of the Puritan viewpoint. The sense of community and cooperation that was valued so heavily in Puritan society seems to have been replaced by the idea of the "rugged individualist." While some towns might still embrace a close knit lifestyle, it seems as though the majority of American towns have rejected this idea over the years. How many of us can even name all of the families that live on our streets, let alone those that live in our neighborhoods?
ReplyDelete-Tara
I agree with Bryce's opinion that it is a great stretch to say that our society is rooted in the Puritanism, especially to say that our society's focus on education solely comes from the Puritan ideas. The significance of education has become so immense and universal, I feel like it cannot be concluded that our society's focus on education is rooted from the Puritan ideas because there were certainly other countries/groups in the world who thought the same way as the Puritans.
ReplyDelete-Joanne
Just a few minutes ago, I finished reading an article (another insight from Contemp). It states that we have a new, modern society that has diverged greatly from the traditional society of a couple centuries ago. And the traditional society from before the Civil War was uprooted forcefully by the war. The author says about the Reconstruction era, "The reintegration of the social order has two essential parts. One was a resurgence of puritanical fervor, a sort of nineteenth-century Moral Majority, which resulted in the enactment of a broad range of legislation that in effect declared traditional values to be the law of the land." I think the author is saying that the puritanical morals were lost sometime in the Civil War, and the Reconstruction era favored bringing them back. Puritan ideas, like any other ideas, are more prominent in certain times than in others, going in and out of fashion. Even though people should be moral all the time, there are lapses, especially in wartime.
ReplyDelete-- tori