Critical Cultural Skill

[pjorourke]

Australia & the US both had long periods of history & geography where you wouldn't hear from authority for months.

[Camille]

Originally Posted by pjorourke

Australia & the US both had long periods of history & geography where you wouldn't hear from authority for months.

Yes, agreed. Like I said, I think the writer is on to something but has wandered off in slightly the wrong direction.

C x

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by pjorourke

Australia & the US both had long periods of history & geography where you wouldn't hear from authority for months.

"If death comes from Spain, we will all be immortal" – a cliché which originated among New World Spanish colonists awaiting administrative decisions from Spain.

One theory, Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism advanced by Max Weber, suggests that self-reliance was a Western tenet that became highly pronounced during the Protestant Reformation. The early Protestants believed that men and woman should read and interpret the Bible for themselves, and they encouraged this. This belief cultivated a highly literate society. Furthermore, John Calvin’s teaching that earthly (financial) success might indicate that one was among “God’s elect” was the original “keep up with the Joneses” syndrome. It also didn’t hurt that Gutenberg coincidentally developed a printing press with moveable type (a conjunction of ideas imported from Asia) to print Bibles, religious, political, technical and scientific tracts; thus, facilitating the spread of new ideas. The conjunction of these ideas and advanced technology enabled Western Europeans to spread out and successfully colonize much of the rest of the world. They, of course, took these ideas that encouraged self-reliance with them.