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From casual observation (living here since 2000) I believe that being stressed and "busy" is a badge of honor in the US. For example during Christmas time every

From casual observation (living here since 2000) I believe that being stressed and "busy" is a badge of honor in the US. For example during Christmas time everybody complains about being stressed with it. I don't remember that from living in Germany. Christmas was downtime not a source of stress. For a while it was also popular to be "outraged" about stuff but that seems to have calmed down quite a bit.

village-idiot 8y ago
The popularity of being stressed by work/busyness is just Puritan work ethic continuing into the 21st century. When work is seen as inherently moral by a society, then being busy makes you a more worthwhile member of that society. It might’ve been a good idea back when we were subsistence farmers, but it doesn’t seem to be super effective nowadays. Outrage culture, which I don’t think has gone away, appears to be new.
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  The puritans were a tiny group of people who lived in basically one corner of one state. I know it is thrown around a lot(e.g. "Why is America so conservative on sex? Puritans"), but I'm fairly sure the 98+% of non-puritans who emigrated to the US had a bigger impact on our culture than the puritans.
  - war1025 8y ago
    I believe the more general term is "Protestant Work Ethic", which encompasses a much larger swath of people.
  - village-idiot 8y ago
    That’s like saying “most of the people in South America weren’t from Spain, why should 16th century Spanish culture have an impact on South America?” It kind of makes sense until you start counting how many people speak Spanish! The puritans are part of the founding myth of America. Ask any school child who founded the colonies and they’ll tell you the pilgrims. That kind of impact lingers. Nobody ever mentions Dutch settlers in what’s now New York or the Spanish in what’s now Florida. That doesn’t mean we’re literally puritans (which wasn’t my claim anyways), but that does mean that the echoes of their culture still have an impact on us today. And, as others have kindly pointed out, “Protestant work ethic” is considered a valid term for the same historical/social trends by academics.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - sudosteph 8y ago
    You're being a little pendantic. I think the original commenter clearly meant the better known phrase "protestant work ethic" rather than puritan - and protestant influence was indeed very significant to the formation of US culture.
- phd514 8y ago
  From an economic perspective, the "Puritan work ethic" as coined by Max Weber and described as the impetus for economic development in post-Reformation cultures has been largely abandoned by economists. From a theological perspective, the "Protestant work ethic" refers to the idea that God does not favor clerical occupations over non-clerical occupations thus elevating the value of the work of the blacksmith, farmer, etc. to the same level as that of the priest, monk, etc. Neither support the idea that busyness or overwork are virtuous.
  - village-idiot 8y ago
    > The Protestant work ethic, the Lutheran work ethic, the Calvinist work ethic or the Puritan work ethic is a work ethic concept in theology, sociology, economics and history that emphasizes that hard work, discipline and frugality. > The concept is often credited with helping to define the societies of Northern, Central and Western Europe. Even though some of these countries were more affected by Lutheranism or Anglicanism than Calvinism, local Protestants nevertheless were influenced by these ideas to a varying degree. As penal law was enacted to uphold the uniform teachings of the Church of England in England, only various English dissenters held to those values. Among them were the Puritans who emigrated to New England, bringing the work ethic with them and helping define the culture of what would become the United States of America. > Hard work and frugality were thought to be two important consequences of being one of the elect. Protestants were thus attracted to these qualities and supposed to strive for reaching them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic All of the dissent I see on that page is about whether or not capitalism is inherently protestant, and whether protestant work ethic explains the relative riches of northern protestant nations over southern catholic ones. While that's interesting economic ground to argue over, it's completely irrelevant to the social phenomena I'm trying to pin down.
    - phd514 8y ago
      That Wikipedia article is horrible and incorrectly states the common misconceptions about the Protestant work ethic. Worse still, it cites Leland Ryken in its second reference who makes precisely the same point about the common misunderstandings of the Protestant work ethic: > The Puritans never conceived of work apart from a spiritual and moral context of service to God and man. Richard Nixon's much-quoted Labor Day message of 1971 probably summed up the popular conception of the "Puritan work ethic," but if so, it is an inaccurate picture: >"The 'work ethic' holds that labor is good in itself; that a man or woman becomes a better person by virtue of the act of working. America's competitive spirit, the 'work ethic' of this people... the value of achievement, the morality of self-reliance-- none of these is going out of style. (Nixon)" >I trust that I have shown that the Puritans would not have been content with such a theory of work. Their ideals were obedience to God, service to humanity, and reliance on God's grace. In the Puritan ethic, the virtue of work depended almost wholly on the motives with which people performed it.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Zenst 8y ago
People through history have always had an outraged culture, it is just that the goalposts of that outrage move, and occasionally rear up en-madd like a tidal wave over what for many is innocuous unless edge-case contextualized - which is often the case in outrage cultures. There was a time in which people would be outraged at other people not wearing a hat, times change, yet the ability to be upset and project that upon others soldiers on regardless. Just today's outrage culture has a more accessible platform to artificially embellish their outrage and societies ability to see 1% vocaly upset with outrage and presume the other 99% agree is a path that sadly still plays out from time to time. But let's not confuse outraged issues with real issues that don't need to be blown up out of proportions to gain attention. That is the worrying issue today, that so many times a small event gets recontextualized to fulfil a narrative of outrage and promoted as such. Downing out real issues that fester without vocal champions.
- will_brown 8y ago
  >People through history have always had an outraged culture Sure has...just look at the Bible and the story of a mob chasing down Mary trying to stone her, until Jesus intervened and ask he who is without sin cast the first stone. Of course society couldn’t handle such self-reflection - much less some radical preaching about love - and given the first chance, the mob took out their outrage on him and had him strung up on a cross Roman style. Leaving out any religious context, those are perfect stories encompassing human nature.
- zarkov99 8y ago
  The biggest difference is that today outrage is incentivized, even manufacturered, because it makes money.
  - rchaud 8y ago
    "If it bleeds, it leads" has been a common refrain for TV news programs from decades ago. It's not new, although the mediums have shifted.
    - 8y ago
ekovarski 8y ago
It's definitely carried like a badge of honor, as they make it sound as if nobody will have a Christmas unless they come through - It's a time to spend time with friends and family, it's not about the gifts or the dinner, many would be happy with just a pizza and good company. I do miss the amazing Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Markets) in Germany. There are various incarnations of it in North America but none compare to theirs.
newsoul2019 8y ago
If you are busy, it is because you are both working hard and also trying to take advantage of all life has to offer (family, friends, vacations, fine dining). If you are NOT busy then it means you AREN'T trying to experience all those things to the fullest. Not only that, you might be DENYING those things to your spouse and children, with your LAZINESS. So, you better look busy.
bpyne 8y ago
Good observation. Not being busy is seen as being lazy in the US. Not working 10 hour days and commuting a couple of hours daily is seen as not being invested in your career. Not running your kids to two activities per night and all-weekend athletic tournaments is seen as being a bad parent. Then we spend money on stuff we don't need as a reward for being so productive, such a good employee, and such a good parent. My daughter decided to stop playing Spring basketball, which entailed two 1.5 hour practices during the week and four games a weekend with travel involved. She made the very mature decision that she didn't want to sacrifice free time and friends to play a game. At first I was skeptical about her having so much downtime, but she's happier, doing better in school, and has a tight-knit group of friends. I'm enjoying it quite a bit too since I don't have to rush from work to drive her around and have every weekend tied up for months. I have a feeling a counter-cultural movement is going to start. Maybe not yet, but soon.
RickJWagner 8y ago
"For a while it was also popular to be "outraged" about stuff but that seems to have calmed down quite a bit. " Wait for it. The presidential election cycle is just starting up. Pandering to every possible demographic is just around the corner. (And they're all victims!)

village-idiot 8y ago

The popularity of being stressed by work/busyness is just Puritan work ethic continuing into the 21st century. When work is seen as inherently moral by a society, then being busy makes you a more worthwhile member of that society. It might’ve been a good idea back when we were subsistence farmers, but it doesn’t seem to be super effective nowadays. Outrage culture, which I don’t think has gone away, appears to be new.

oh_sigh 8y ago
The puritans were a tiny group of people who lived in basically one corner of one state. I know it is thrown around a lot(e.g. "Why is America so conservative on sex? Puritans"), but I'm fairly sure the 98+% of non-puritans who emigrated to the US had a bigger impact on our culture than the puritans.
- war1025 8y ago
  I believe the more general term is "Protestant Work Ethic", which encompasses a much larger swath of people.
- village-idiot 8y ago
  That’s like saying “most of the people in South America weren’t from Spain, why should 16th century Spanish culture have an impact on South America?” It kind of makes sense until you start counting how many people speak Spanish! The puritans are part of the founding myth of America. Ask any school child who founded the colonies and they’ll tell you the pilgrims. That kind of impact lingers. Nobody ever mentions Dutch settlers in what’s now New York or the Spanish in what’s now Florida. That doesn’t mean we’re literally puritans (which wasn’t my claim anyways), but that does mean that the echoes of their culture still have an impact on us today. And, as others have kindly pointed out, “Protestant work ethic” is considered a valid term for the same historical/social trends by academics.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- sudosteph 8y ago
  You're being a little pendantic. I think the original commenter clearly meant the better known phrase "protestant work ethic" rather than puritan - and protestant influence was indeed very significant to the formation of US culture.
phd514 8y ago
From an economic perspective, the "Puritan work ethic" as coined by Max Weber and described as the impetus for economic development in post-Reformation cultures has been largely abandoned by economists. From a theological perspective, the "Protestant work ethic" refers to the idea that God does not favor clerical occupations over non-clerical occupations thus elevating the value of the work of the blacksmith, farmer, etc. to the same level as that of the priest, monk, etc. Neither support the idea that busyness or overwork are virtuous.
- village-idiot 8y ago
  > The Protestant work ethic, the Lutheran work ethic, the Calvinist work ethic or the Puritan work ethic is a work ethic concept in theology, sociology, economics and history that emphasizes that hard work, discipline and frugality. > The concept is often credited with helping to define the societies of Northern, Central and Western Europe. Even though some of these countries were more affected by Lutheranism or Anglicanism than Calvinism, local Protestants nevertheless were influenced by these ideas to a varying degree. As penal law was enacted to uphold the uniform teachings of the Church of England in England, only various English dissenters held to those values. Among them were the Puritans who emigrated to New England, bringing the work ethic with them and helping define the culture of what would become the United States of America. > Hard work and frugality were thought to be two important consequences of being one of the elect. Protestants were thus attracted to these qualities and supposed to strive for reaching them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic All of the dissent I see on that page is about whether or not capitalism is inherently protestant, and whether protestant work ethic explains the relative riches of northern protestant nations over southern catholic ones. While that's interesting economic ground to argue over, it's completely irrelevant to the social phenomena I'm trying to pin down.
  - phd514 8y ago
    That Wikipedia article is horrible and incorrectly states the common misconceptions about the Protestant work ethic. Worse still, it cites Leland Ryken in its second reference who makes precisely the same point about the common misunderstandings of the Protestant work ethic: > The Puritans never conceived of work apart from a spiritual and moral context of service to God and man. Richard Nixon's much-quoted Labor Day message of 1971 probably summed up the popular conception of the "Puritan work ethic," but if so, it is an inaccurate picture: >"The 'work ethic' holds that labor is good in itself; that a man or woman becomes a better person by virtue of the act of working. America's competitive spirit, the 'work ethic' of this people... the value of achievement, the morality of self-reliance-- none of these is going out of style. (Nixon)" >I trust that I have shown that the Puritans would not have been content with such a theory of work. Their ideals were obedience to God, service to humanity, and reliance on God's grace. In the Puritan ethic, the virtue of work depended almost wholly on the motives with which people performed it.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

Zenst 8y ago

People through history have always had an outraged culture, it is just that the goalposts of that outrage move, and occasionally rear up en-madd like a tidal wave over what for many is innocuous unless edge-case contextualized - which is often the case in outrage cultures. There was a time in which people would be outraged at other people not wearing a hat, times change, yet the ability to be upset and project that upon others soldiers on regardless. Just today's outrage culture has a more accessible platform to artificially embellish their outrage and societies ability to see 1% vocaly upset with outrage and presume the other 99% agree is a path that sadly still plays out from time to time. But let's not confuse outraged issues with real issues that don't need to be blown up out of proportions to gain attention. That is the worrying issue today, that so many times a small event gets recontextualized to fulfil a narrative of outrage and promoted as such. Downing out real issues that fester without vocal champions.

will_brown 8y ago
>People through history have always had an outraged culture Sure has...just look at the Bible and the story of a mob chasing down Mary trying to stone her, until Jesus intervened and ask he who is without sin cast the first stone. Of course society couldn’t handle such self-reflection - much less some radical preaching about love - and given the first chance, the mob took out their outrage on him and had him strung up on a cross Roman style. Leaving out any religious context, those are perfect stories encompassing human nature.
zarkov99 8y ago
The biggest difference is that today outrage is incentivized, even manufacturered, because it makes money.
- rchaud 8y ago
  "If it bleeds, it leads" has been a common refrain for TV news programs from decades ago. It's not new, although the mediums have shifted.
  - 8y ago

ekovarski 8y ago

It's definitely carried like a badge of honor, as they make it sound as if nobody will have a Christmas unless they come through - It's a time to spend time with friends and family, it's not about the gifts or the dinner, many would be happy with just a pizza and good company. I do miss the amazing Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Markets) in Germany. There are various incarnations of it in North America but none compare to theirs.

newsoul2019 8y ago

If you are busy, it is because you are both working hard and also trying to take advantage of all life has to offer (family, friends, vacations, fine dining). If you are NOT busy then it means you AREN'T trying to experience all those things to the fullest. Not only that, you might be DENYING those things to your spouse and children, with your LAZINESS. So, you better look busy.

bpyne 8y ago

Good observation. Not being busy is seen as being lazy in the US. Not working 10 hour days and commuting a couple of hours daily is seen as not being invested in your career. Not running your kids to two activities per night and all-weekend athletic tournaments is seen as being a bad parent. Then we spend money on stuff we don't need as a reward for being so productive, such a good employee, and such a good parent. My daughter decided to stop playing Spring basketball, which entailed two 1.5 hour practices during the week and four games a weekend with travel involved. She made the very mature decision that she didn't want to sacrifice free time and friends to play a game. At first I was skeptical about her having so much downtime, but she's happier, doing better in school, and has a tight-knit group of friends. I'm enjoying it quite a bit too since I don't have to rush from work to drive her around and have every weekend tied up for months. I have a feeling a counter-cultural movement is going to start. Maybe not yet, but soon.

RickJWagner 8y ago

"For a while it was also popular to be "outraged" about stuff but that seems to have calmed down quite a bit. " Wait for it. The presidential election cycle is just starting up. Pandering to every possible demographic is just around the corner. (And they're all victims!)