Quote:
Originally Posted by Seducio
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
This seems like super European 'top down authority' vibes for an American like me. Americans have that can do 'self help' spirit that Europeans aren't always on board with. Europeans were trained to expect their elites to fix things. Americans were taught to do it themselves. Yes I know that's painting with a large brush. What you said makes sense to me.
The rise of the Middle Class power following victory in WW2 empowered a whole population of 'would be serfs' had they been living in Europe in a different era. More people are literate than ever. Folks appear to be very content to engage with 'divine texts' in a way that seems relatively new compared with how elites from millennia ago engaged with them when they were written. I wonder if the printing press had something to do with this.
|
See this is where things get weird, because the primary form of Christianity in the USA was born almost entirely from the Reformation and it's descendants and still had the 'top down authority' vibes you're talking about. You'll see in old census records that many reverends and respectable sorts were fairly wealthy landowners. In fact landowning was a requirement for voting rights initially, ensuring the continued 'top-down authority', at least until the Revolutionary War came. Then every state went its own way in deciding who could vote, there were multiple hiccups which even lead to New Jersey having to qualify that saying 'all persons' does not include women, black people, children, non-landowners, and/or those who don't pay taxes. (Religious restrictions also existed in a fair few states, Maryland finally allowed Jewish people to vote in 1828)
The vibes get stronger when it came to the institution of slavery, where the 'Curse of Ham' and the need to keep black people enslaved so they can remain Christian rather than fall back into paganism were used as justification by some more holy-minded slave owners.
In fact it wasn't even until the mid to late 1880s that we begin to see the 'American Self-Help' spirit actually form, as literacy continued exploding post-Civil War and there were huge shake ups on all sides of traditional power structures.
So in the end, things are quite messy.