Very interesting and surprising . I wish I could get my evangelical Christian friends to read it ! But probably they would reject any criticism of US 'born again' type Christianity . They also would not like any suggestion that Catholics could be Christian at all .
Oh, yeah, in the US we've always tolerated capitalism that's redder in tooth and claw than almost everywhere else in the world. But we worship at the altar of Progress and creating the Next Big Thing, and capitalism is one tool for serving our gods.
I have long maintained that "left" and "right" in the American sense are not coherent philosophical positions but ad hoc coalitions of interest groups who many not really have all that much in common, and who may not even like each other all that much.
It's true, the left-right distinction is seemingly made up more of cultural accoutrements than material politics in the U.S., which of course suits the ruling class just fine. That's why I consider class distinctions to be a much more useful concept.
As ever, your writing is beautifully clear-sighted. I'm upgrading to paid as a Christmas gift to myself. Hope you receive a restorative and relatively peaceful few days at least.
Very interesting and surprising . I wish I could get my evangelical Christian friends to read it ! But probably they would reject any criticism of US 'born again' type Christianity . They also would not like any suggestion that Catholics could be Christian at all .
Oh, yeah, in the US we've always tolerated capitalism that's redder in tooth and claw than almost everywhere else in the world. But we worship at the altar of Progress and creating the Next Big Thing, and capitalism is one tool for serving our gods.
I have long maintained that "left" and "right" in the American sense are not coherent philosophical positions but ad hoc coalitions of interest groups who many not really have all that much in common, and who may not even like each other all that much.
It's true, the left-right distinction is seemingly made up more of cultural accoutrements than material politics in the U.S., which of course suits the ruling class just fine. That's why I consider class distinctions to be a much more useful concept.
As ever, your writing is beautifully clear-sighted. I'm upgrading to paid as a Christmas gift to myself. Hope you receive a restorative and relatively peaceful few days at least.