Achieving the \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d is baked into the culture of the United States. We are told to \u201cpull ourselves up by our bootstraps,\u201d to make enough money to provide a 2000 square foot roof over our heads and an SUV to hold our 2.5 kids and Golden Retriever. If we can accomplish this \u201cdream\u201d we are deemed worthy of being called an American. Of course, I am being somewhat sarcastic, but this is often what it feels like to live in this country I call home.<\/p>\n
Hustle culture, the glorification of working long hours to achieve your professional goals and\/or productivity goals is the norm. When asked \u201chow are you?\u201d it bumps up your social status if you reply, \u201cOh, I am soooo busy!\u201d When my twenty-year old decided not to attend college the first questions I was asked by other parents was, \u201cBut what is he going to do to keep up? Where is he going to work? How will he get ahead?\u201d And to be honest, I worried about these same things\u2026because to be able to provide for oneself at the ripe old age of 22 is part of the \u201cAmerican Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Predestination and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/strong><\/p>\n But really, this is just another version of the \u201cspirit of capitalism\u201d sociologist and economist, Max Weber refers to in his book, \u2026. Trying to figure out the origins of modern capitalism, Weber turned to the reformers of the Protestant reformation. In separating with the Catholic church, \u00a0Martin Luther made popular the idea of \u201ccalling,\u201d that all work done could glorify God. Therefore, one should approach one\u2019s life and career with the same intensity and discipline used by monks in monastic orders.[1]<\/a> In this way, Weber believed Luther made commerce safe for Christianity. Money making could be a godly pursuit.[2]<\/a> But the real move to a spirit of capitalism, Weber says, was through the doctrine of predestination put forth by John Calvin.<\/p>\n Predestination, the theological conviction that God has already decided who is \u201celect\u201d or chosen for salvation and who is \u201cdammed\u201d and there is nothing human beings can do to change God\u2019s mind, caused anxiety in many. The best way to quell their unease was for people to visibly separate themselves from those they thought to already be dammed. If you could set yourself apart it might give you some assurance that you were bound for heaven even if nothing you could do could determine your fate, at least you might feel better.[3]<\/a> This created a \u201cspirit of capitalism\u201d that saw making money not as something immoral but as a positive good, something you can and should dedicate your life to doing. In other words, working hard, saving much, investing well and consequently, making money, made you worthy.<\/p>\n While a capitalistic system was not the concern of the reformers, according to Weber, it was an outcome of the theology and doctrines they put forth, laying the foundation for modern capitalism and the spirit of capitalism. The Puritans brought this \u201cwork hard and be productive\u201d ethos when they came to the USA and over time the spirit of capitalism seeped into the greater culture, gradually being secularized, losing its religious roots.<\/p>\n The Spirit of Capitalism is Changing <\/strong><\/p>\n In his book, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment<\/em>, Francis Fukuyama argues that every person has an inherent dignity and that even more than economic advancement, we want that dignity to be recognized.[4]<\/a> Yet, capitalism only glorifies a person if she can advance herself economically. If not, it is believed you obviously haven\u2019t been diligent enough in your work, and it is often seen as a moral failing. And yet, in our country, it is becoming more and more difficult to advance oneself economically unless you begin in the \u201cprivileged\u201d elite, meaning, you are white and male, your parents are educated, your family has important connections, etc. Even then, it can be difficult to make enough money to pay your bills and have any left-over! There is a disconnect between the need to be recognized for our inherent dignity and how our capitalistic culture defines worthiness of recognition.<\/p>\n Weber ends his essay on a very bleak note, not much different than how (I believe) many in our country feel today. He says that the spirit of capitalism has become an iron cage around us, there is no escape from this spirit of capitalism. Considering that Weber spent many years in a state of depression (footnote) having suffered a breakdown, one wonders if his depression might have been triggered by this belief.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n It also makes me wonder about the mental health crisis we are experiencing in our teenagers and young adults. In the fictional novel, Together We Will Go<\/em>, the main character, a young man, wraps up the feelings of so many of our young adults today, echoing even the sentiments of my own son. With his parents expecting him to get a college degree he responds,<\/p>\n \u201cWhen our parents said, \u2018Go to college and get your degree so that you can get a job,\u2019 we did it even though we know it doesn\u2019t work that way anymore because we wanted to make you happy, because we wanted to believe what you believed, that the rules still applied, that you walked out of college with a degree in one hand as a recruiter shook the other, offering a job and a salary and a desk and maybe a pension plan that they\u2019ll take away before you actually get to use the thing but hey, it\u2019s the thought that counts, right? We will never, ever have the same opportunities you did. Full time jobs are fading fast, replaced by part-time jobs where you get paid $h!t money to work long hours that are constantly being shifted around so there\u2019s no stability, no benefits, and no backtalk or you\u2019re fired, and there is nothing you can do about it. And the American Dream of owning a home someday? How? With what? Everyone I know who graduated from college came out $50k-$80K in the hole for student loans they will never pay off, which by the way also shoots down their credit rating, so there\u2019s no savings, no loans, nothing to invest, nothing to buy a home with, and the planet is frying and in thirty years most of us will end up climate refugees, so yeah, there\u2019s *that* to look forward to. And in return we get $h!t upon from On High for living at home or not having ambition or putting experience ahead of owning stuff because in case you weren\u2019t paying attention, we can\u2019t afford anything!\u201d[6]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Our younger generation is still faced with the immense pressure of the Protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism, but most young adults aren\u2019t able to make enough capital to even pay off their student loans making achieving the American Dream almost hopelessly impossible. It\u2019s enough to make anyone depressed!<\/p>\n Whether or not, Weber\u2019s Protestant Work Ethic is the only reason for the spirit of capitalism, and it would seem, Dr. Jason Clark, among many other critics, provides a strong critique to some of Weber\u2019s claims including his use of Benjamin Franklin who was \u201cwho is shoehorned into the role of exemplar for a Protestant ascetic and ethic,\u201d when he was instead a \u201cdeist with an orientation towards money that was politically motivated\u201d rather than theologically motivated by the doctrine of predestination,[7]<\/a> for better\u2026but maybe for worse, the Protestant Work Ethic and the spirit of capitalism seems to have saturated our culture.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n [1]<\/a> Schultz, Will, Why This Text Matters, The Protestant Work Ethic, accessed on YouTube, October 14, 2023, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=D2SDBExBxHs<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Francis Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, <\/em>Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, NY, 2018, accessed on Scribd, location 19.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Schultz, Will, Why This Text Matters, The Protestant Work Ethic, accessed on YouTube, October 14, 2023, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=D2SDBExBxHs<\/p>\n