A Christian revival, sparked by the work of the lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge, brought about a profound cultural change that shook the establishment. Common people who had learned to read the Bible were now reading more generally, forming opinions and expressing them. Some of them proved — to the surprise of many — to be sensible people. It grew harder and harder, and finally impossible, to deny them a voice in government. The party that spoke for them was known as the Venstre (the Left), and its leadership was overwhelmingly Haugean. Its chief concern was moral and spiritual improvement in the nation.
This leads to the question, what are the values that people need to have to live in freedom. I can think of three big ones:
Self sufficiency, so you don’t need to ask the government to manage your life. Helpfulness to others, so your neighbors won’t ask the government to manage their lives. Capitalistic humility, the virtue of selling what people want to buy, rather than what you want to sell. This helps you be self-sufficient and help other people.
I’m reminded of Democracy In America by Alexis De Tocqueville. It’s been twenty years since I read it, but I still remember coming across the conclusion, “America is great because America is good.” He went on with the observation that America was good because of its churches.
De Tocqueville was a French Diplomat in Washington in the early 1800’s. Over the course of 30 years, he made detailed observations of the differences between France and America to answer the question of why the American Revolution produced a generally stable, prosperous nation, while the French Revolution had left chaos and destruction in its wake. All his study kept leading him back to one core difference: The Christian Faith of the common American lead him to lead a moral, self-sufficient and productive lifestyle whereas the common Frenchman lived a life of dependency.
Self sufficiency, so you don’t need to ask the government to manage your life. Helpfulness to others, so your neighbors won’t ask the government to manage their lives. Capitalistic humility, the virtue of selling what people want to buy, rather than what you want to sell. This helps you be self-sufficient and help other people.
I’d change the second one to Helpfulness so that your neighbors won’t ask the government to manage your life.
I went searching for a De Tocqueville quote I wanted to cite and found this in Book I of Democracy in America, (emphasis mine)
In certain countries of Europe the natives consider themselves as a kind of settlers, indifferent to the fate of the spot upon which they live. The greatest changes are effected without their concurrence and (unless chance may have apprised them of the event) without their knowledge; nay more, the citizen is unconcerned as to the condition of his village, the police of his street, the repairs of the church or of the parsonage; for he looks upon all these things as unconnected with himself, and as the property of a powerful stranger whom he calls the Government. He has only a life-interest in these possessions, and he entertains no notions of ownership or of improvement. This want of interest in his own affairs goes so far that, if his own safety or that of his children is endangered, instead of trying to avert the peril, he will fold his arms, and wait till the nation comes to his assistance. This same individual, who has so completely sacrificed his own free will, has no natural propensity to obedience; he cowers, it is true, before the pettiest officer; but he braves the law with the spirit of a conquered foe as soon as its superior force is removed: his oscillations between servitude and license are perpetual. When a nation has arrived at this state it must either change its customs and its laws or perish: the source of public virtue is dry, and, though it may contain subjects, the race of citizens is extinct. Such communities are a natural prey to foreign conquests, and if they do not disappear from the scene of life, it is because they are surrounded by other nations similar or inferior to themselves: it is because the instinctive feeling of their country’s claims still exists in their hearts; and because an involuntary pride in the name it bears, or a vague reminiscence of its bygone fame, suffices to give them the impulse of self-preservation.
What he wrote of Europe in 1830 might well be written of some sectors of America in 2011.
Very good article.
This leads to the question, what are the values that people need to have to live in freedom. I can think of three big ones:
Self sufficiency, so you don’t need to ask the government to manage your life.
Helpfulness to others, so your neighbors won’t ask the government to manage their lives.
Capitalistic humility, the virtue of selling what people want to buy, rather than what you want to sell. This helps you be self-sufficient and help other people.
I’m reminded of Democracy In America by Alexis De Tocqueville. It’s been twenty years since I read it, but I still remember coming across the conclusion, “America is great because America is good.” He went on with the observation that America was good because of its churches.
De Tocqueville was a French Diplomat in Washington in the early 1800’s. Over the course of 30 years, he made detailed observations of the differences between France and America to answer the question of why the American Revolution produced a generally stable, prosperous nation, while the French Revolution had left chaos and destruction in its wake. All his study kept leading him back to one core difference: The Christian Faith of the common American lead him to lead a moral, self-sufficient and productive lifestyle whereas the common Frenchman lived a life of dependency.
I’d change the second one to Helpfulness so that your neighbors won’t ask the government to manage your life.
I went searching for a De Tocqueville quote I wanted to cite and found this in Book I of Democracy in America, (emphasis mine)
What he wrote of Europe in 1830 might well be written of some sectors of America in 2011.