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The Not-So-Protestant Work Ethic
Is “the Protestant work ethic” a myth? Isn’t it really an Anglophile work ethic? Or perhaps it’s a German work ethic (English culture originating from old Germanic / North European tribes). Is the term often applied to the growing Protestant communities in South America, Africa, and Asia?
After the many discussions on Ricochet of salvation by “faith alone” — a belief ultimately shared by Catholics, strangely enough — it seems that defining assertion would, if anything lead to lazier peoples, not more productive ones. There are other differences between Catholics and Protestants, of course. But that one has always been primary.
There have been statistics cited here before showing common incidence of poverty and corruption in Catholic nations. But, as I recall, none of those nations are derived from British culture.
Published in General
Look at #10 & #12.
(bigger image here)
Excellent. My Reformation professor used to dump on Weber by asking why Bavaria was one of the richer big Länder? It should have been the poorest by this reckoning.
That map bears a post all its own. Don’t have time to really study it now, but that’s fascinating.
I’m not sure if those maps verify my proposal that climate is more significant than theology or if they suggest beer is the key to prosperity (#6).
Judaism leads to all kinds of bad outcomes. I have written on them before. A favorite example: “Jewish Intellectual Disease” – the ailment that affects people who think that they can make a perfect decision if they just wait long enough to collect sufficient data.
I did miss those posts. To your point, Jews have my every sympathy for the way that they are and have been historically persecuted, but I can’t get too teared up over their brains, motivation and talent in the arts. In fact, I’ll take some of that please. Besides, aren’t you talking about a trait that is more genetic than religious?
I discussed this in some of Claire’s posts, since hers is an archetypal case.
We prioritize education above just about everything else. And that leads to an overemphasis on intellect and its powers. This is cultural, part-and-parcel with the religion. It is not necessarily genetic.
Not necessarily maybe, but it is. Who are you kidding?
BBC Radio 4’s excellent “In Our Time” series discussed Max Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” last year. The podcast version still seems to be available (though there may be issues for those outside the UK – sorry if that happens) here.
Similarly, the German state of Baden-Württemberg is more Catholic than Protestant (4.1 million Catholics vs 3.6 million Protestants), but it (and the “dumb Swabians” inhabit it) is a powerhouse of industry. Baden-Württemberg’s motto is “Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch”: that is, “We can do anything. Except speak proper German”, referring to the great ferment of industrial and economic activity that takes place there, despite the inhabitants speaking what’s perceived as a country-bumpkin dialect.
Swabians have a reputation for being the Scots of Germany – thrifty and industrious. This despite their relatively high propensity for Catholicism.