THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PURITAN VALUES IN NATIONAL MYTHOLOGY

Puritanism in America

BRENNA LIPONIS AND JACK YOU

16201620 Pilgrims, Puritans, and Separatists

Pilgrims, Puritans, and Separatists

You Might Remember this…

Who are Puritans

?

Religious movement (Protestants) in the 16th and 17th century

Opposed to the Episcopal system and church monarchy which seemed corrupt and “impure”

Wanted to interpret the Bible individually (in English)

Focus on individual and congregational piety

New England Puritans searching for religious freedom– separatists

Separatists founded America

Although the religious movement dissolved in the 17th century, the values that have

evolved from the original Puritan religion permeate the narratives we tell ourselves

every day in media culture.

Religious Movement Turned National Identity

Narratives

FROM AMERICA’S INCEPTION TO TODAY

Establishing Kingdom of Heaven on Earth

“…for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world..”

-- John Winthrop, 1630

“In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America would describe the civilization of New

England as ‘a beacon lit upon mountain tops which, after warming all in its vicinity, casts a glow over the

distant horizon’”--Hopper, p. 5

Exercise of Mechanical Skill

“One reason why American men became obsessed with their automobiles in the early twentieth century was precisely that they could

tinker with them on Saturday morning. As late as the 1960s, if a company president did his own plumbing, he would ensure that this fact

appeared in his official company biography; it showed he was a ‘real American’. A willingness to get their hands dirty distinguished managers

from their European equivalents; this distinction reflected the relative lack of social stratification in the New World, the men at the top and bottom being considered to be made from the same common clay.”

--Hopper, Ken; Hopper, Will. D.. Puritan Gift : Triumph and Decline of an American Dream, p. 7

“In 1865, the French author, Jules Verne, would remark in his novel From the Earth to the Moon that ‘Yankees, who are the world’s finest

mechanics, are engineers in the same way as Italians are musicians and Germans are metaphysicians – they were born that way’.”

--Hopper, Ken; Hopper, Will. D.. Puritan Gift : Triumph and Decline of an American Dream, p. 4

Collective Moral Outlook

“…to walke humbly with our God, for this end, wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must

entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, wee must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekenes, gentlenes, patience

and liberallity, wee must delight in eache other, make others Condicions our owne rejoyce together, mourne together, labour, and suffer together, allwayes haveing before our eyes our Commission and Community in the worke, our Community as members of the same body”

-- John Winthrop, 1630

“We keep seeing more examples of Facebook helping people share experiences and values and save them for

future reminiscing.”-- Samuel Axon, Mashable: The Social Media Guide

The Legacy of Puritanism: Intolerance

Female Submissiveness

Exemplars of the Puritan American Ideal, heroes in our

National Mythology and Culture

BEN FRANKLIN

TOMMY J

GOOGLE

SUPERMAN

Benjamin FranklinBenjamin FranklinInventor, Philosopher, Founding Father, Politician, Civic Inventor, Philosopher, Founding Father, Politician, Civic

Activist, etcActivist, etc““Stacy Schiff has said that he ‘truly believed it was always

morning in America’.” (Hopper, p. 5)

Benjamin FranklinBenjamin FranklinInventor, Philosopher, Founding Father, Politician, Civic Inventor, Philosopher, Founding Father, Politician, Civic

Activist, etcActivist, etc““Stacy Schiff has said that he ‘truly believed it was always

morning in America’.” (Hopper, p. 5)

Thomas JeffersonThird President of the United States, Main Author of

Declaration of Independence, Founding FatherChanged John Locke’s “life, liberty, and the pursuit of

estate,” into “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Thomas JeffersonThird President of the United States, Main Author of

Declaration of Independence, Founding FatherChanged John Locke’s “life, liberty, and the pursuit of

estate,” into “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Google“Google Inc., which now dominates the world of

communications. Their motto is, ‘Don’t be evil’. We have been told that they are motivated by ‘PURITANICAL

FANATICISM’ and a desire to change the world, making it a better place’; a visitor to their head office is reported to

have said that he felt he was in the ‘COMPANY OF MISSIONARIEs’. Another observer says that ‘Google is a

religion posing as a company’.” (Hopper, p. 5)

Google“Google Inc., which now dominates the world of

communications. Their motto is, ‘Don’t be evil’. We have been told that they are motivated by ‘PURITANICAL

FANATICISM’ and a desire to change the world, making it a better place’; a visitor to their head office is reported to

have said that he felt he was in the ‘COMPANY OF MISSIONARIEs’. Another observer says that ‘Google is a

religion posing as a company’.” (Hopper, p. 5)

Superman “Truth, Justice and the American Way”

Ordinary American from Smallville

Superman “Truth, Justice and the American Way”

Ordinary American from Smallville

ANOTHER LESS-POPULAR STORY RUNS PARALLEL TO THE PURITAN NARRATIVE

Reality

Consumerist Values Taking OVER THE

WORLD!

Consumerist Values Taking OVER THE

WORLD!… and the liberation of women from the private sphere

… and the liberation of women from the private sphere

Resourcefulness Turned Exploitative

“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and

over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Behold, I have given thee every

herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding

seed; to you it shall be for meat.”--The Bible

“As a nation, we have much to be proud of, and historically have been at the forefront of democratic, progressive politics, but in terms of our ultimately unsustainable

dependence upon exploitation, we should be ashamed of both our history and our current state.”

--Thom Hartman, America: The Exploitative Nation

Loss of Spiritual Communities

“When the late seventeenth-century Puritan divine, Cotton Mather, remarked that religion

begot prosperity and the daughter had destroyed the mother, he meant that diligence

and economy had created wealth – and that the newly wealthy colonists were straying from

the path of virtue.” (Hopper, p. 9)“In the U.S. […] worship at a church is rivaled

only by the worship of the shopping mall.” -- Will Hutton

Selflessness Turned Selfishness

“Winthrop had witnessed with dismay the drift of English culture and deplored the “overall moral climate that allowed and encouraged purposeless, unreflective

egotism”-- David M. Robinson, The Cultural Dynamics of

American Puritanism, p. 742

Liberation of Women

“Post-feminist critic Camille Paglia argued by contrast that Madonna's unabashed sexuality exposed “the

puritanism and suffocating ideology of American feminism”

--Diane Pecknold, Pop Culture Universe

“Post-feminist critic Camille Paglia argued by contrast that Madonna's unabashed sexuality exposed “the

puritanism and suffocating ideology of American feminism”

--Diane Pecknold, Pop Culture Universe

In Conclusion

As time As time goes goes on….on….

Keeping Puritan values of Attempting to create a better

community Mechanical and Managerial Skill Community

Evolving from Puritan values of: Subordinating the interests of the

individual to that of the group Spiritual Communities Homogeneity, and the submission

of Women

Always Celebrating Self-sacrifice for the Greater Good

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