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The idea that "hard work, discipline, frugality" are Calvinist and Protestant inventions may be the most preposterous thing I've read today. As if the rest of t

The idea that "hard work, discipline, frugality" are Calvinist and Protestant inventions may be the most preposterous thing I've read today. As if the rest of the world or previous eras valued self-indulgence and wasteful lavishness. Or that an unproductive member of society wasn't always scorned or at least viewed negatively by those having to produce.

telxsos 2mo ago
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dd8601fn 2mo ago
https://www.britannica.com/money/Protestant-ethic https://www.britannica.com/money/Protestant-ethic
- telxsos 2mo ago
  [flagged]
  - MatejKafka 2mo ago
    From HN guidelines: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.
cjcole 2mo ago
It's mere slander. It reminds me of the Smithsonian's insistence that punctuality, hard work, objectivity, and politeness were aspects of "white dominant culture" and "white supremacy". https://web.archive.org/web/20200715153724/https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness https://web.archive.org/web/20200715153724/https://nmaahc.si... Some Inuit practiced senilicide up through the 20th century. "On the other hand, when food did run short, the old and sick were looked upon as drains on the community’s resources. Sometimes they were killed – thrown into the sea, buried alive, locked out in the cold, or starved to death. Far more commonly they were simply abandoned to die. The victim might be taken out in the wilderness and left there, or the whole village might pick up and move away while the old person slept. If the villagers were unexpectedly restored to prosperity, they might go back to rescue those left behind. An abandoned person would also be welcomed back as a full member of the community if he could manage to make his way back to the village on his own. But usually he couldn’t." https://www.straightdope.com/21343302/did-eskimos-put-their-elderly-on-ice-floes-to-die https://www.straightdope.com/21343302/did-eskimos-put-their-... (His title is sarcastic. They aren't known to have done that in particular.)
grigri907 2mo ago
Agreed. I believe the special sauce Calvinism added was equating those values with moral success/failure, and therefore spiritual salvation. It gave "not working hard enough" an eternal consequence. It may not have been the first, but Calvinism certainly made it mainstream in the west. See also: how frequently critiques of the poor slide into moral judgements.
eschaton 2mo ago
It was a strategic invention that has only ever applied to the plebs, the plutocrats have always been exempt from it.

telxsos 2mo ago

[dead]

dd8601fn 2mo ago

https://www.britannica.com/money/Protestant-ethic https://www.britannica.com/money/Protestant-ethic

telxsos 2mo ago
[flagged]
- MatejKafka 2mo ago
  From HN guidelines: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

cjcole 2mo ago

It's mere slander. It reminds me of the Smithsonian's insistence that punctuality, hard work, objectivity, and politeness were aspects of "white dominant culture" and "white supremacy". https://web.archive.org/web/20200715153724/https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness https://web.archive.org/web/20200715153724/https://nmaahc.si... Some Inuit practiced senilicide up through the 20th century. "On the other hand, when food did run short, the old and sick were looked upon as drains on the community’s resources. Sometimes they were killed – thrown into the sea, buried alive, locked out in the cold, or starved to death. Far more commonly they were simply abandoned to die. The victim might be taken out in the wilderness and left there, or the whole village might pick up and move away while the old person slept. If the villagers were unexpectedly restored to prosperity, they might go back to rescue those left behind. An abandoned person would also be welcomed back as a full member of the community if he could manage to make his way back to the village on his own. But usually he couldn’t." https://www.straightdope.com/21343302/did-eskimos-put-their-elderly-on-ice-floes-to-die https://www.straightdope.com/21343302/did-eskimos-put-their-... (His title is sarcastic. They aren't known to have done that in particular.)

grigri907 2mo ago

Agreed. I believe the special sauce Calvinism added was equating those values with moral success/failure, and therefore spiritual salvation. It gave "not working hard enough" an eternal consequence. It may not have been the first, but Calvinism certainly made it mainstream in the west. See also: how frequently critiques of the poor slide into moral judgements.

eschaton 2mo ago

It was a strategic invention that has only ever applied to the plebs, the plutocrats have always been exempt from it.