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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   38744 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 15, 2024

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As to your two explanations, I expect it's a combination of both, but would say the latter is probably the much larger component.

I find myself once again referring to the "Mrs. Britten's English Zone" page on Characteristics of Puritan Writing

Early literature written by Puritans in America often appeared as first person narratives in the form of journals and diaries. Early American colonists wrote their accounts of immigration, settling in America, and day-to-day life in journals to pass their stories down. Many Puritans also wrote letters to send back to Europe to family and friends they left behind. Very little fiction appeared during this period; Puritans valued realistic writing with an emphasis on religious themes.

…

Puritans wrote with specific purposes in mind. Even the letters they wrote to friends and family in Europe performed more of a purpose than simply communicating about their lives and keeping in touch. Puritans' religious beliefs affected their lives on all levels, and their writing illustrated their religion's values, such as the importance of the church and the influence of God in their lives. Writing often became instructive, teaching Christian values. The Puritans did not believe that literature was for entertainment; therefore, they frowned upon "entertainment" genres such as drama (plays) and fiction novels.

Replace the letters and diaries with emails, chat, and social media, and the Protestant moralizing with woke DEI moralizing, and you've got a rather familiar type, no? And note the skepticism of fiction: works done for entertainment's sake are inherently suspect, and moral messaging is the priority in any communication.

Hence the criticism of much current "woke" media, and of many attempts at right-wing "anti-woke" media, both paralleling the classic criticism of much "Christian media" of the Veggie Tales sort: that they put The Message above storytelling, above quality, above being entertaining. If your show or your music or your writing isn't ad maiorem DEI gloriam (if I may be forgiven this horrible wordplay), then what does that say about its morals — and thus your morals? If you're not constantly displaying Christian virtue in your words, and exhorting everyone else to do the same, then you're not really a proper Puritan, are you? If you're not signaling how "woke" and pro-diversity you are, and reminding everyone to check their privilege and practice tolerance, then how do we know you're not secretly some sort of reactionary bigot?

Didn't Scott have a post where he made a point along these lines, about how this is what we get when people with "hectoring Church Lady" personalities grow up in secular Progressive spaces?

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