The Rise of the New Puritans by Noah Rothman

Author:Noah Rothman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

6

Temperance

Sober, Chaste, and Penitent

The puritanical progressive is deeply suspicious of enjoyment for enjoyment’s sake. That much is clear by now. But so far, the why of it all has been rooted in abstract principles. The prescriptions for a wholesome society preferred by the New Puritans do not always arise from theory alone. There is a practical dimension to their strict preferences, one that is informed by the wisdom accumulated over the centuries mankind has spent experimenting with different models of social organization.

Harmonious social relations are difficult to maintain if your highest aim in life is pleasure-seeking. That is especially true if that pursuit of self-gratification is contemptuous of the boundaries others have established for themselves and their loved ones. The preservation of a functional community demands that we impose some limits on ourselves.

That which leads us to lose control—to forget ourselves amid intemperate desire—can tear a community apart. For a brief moment in this nation’s history, a movement that embraced self-indulgence as a virtue tested our unspoken but deeply engrained commitment to preserving social comity. That moment is all but over.

What we have instead is a moralistic revolution. Its vanguard isn’t just seeking to root out reckless excess but anything that could possibly lead to it. This movement has whipped up a panic that is as imprecise in its aims as many of the old Puritan inquisitions were. And as is often the case, it’s the poor and disempowered who consume the minds of well-heeled moral reformers. It’s also the poor and disempowered who feel the sting of their panics most acutely. Thus, we’re being subjected to something akin to a new temperance movement. And much like the old temperance movement, its sharpest edges are reserved mostly for those farther down the socioeconomic ladder.

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