The Rise of the New Puritans
The Rise of the New Puritans
My conversation with American writer and editor Noah Rothman
Appears in this episode
The American journalist H. L. Mencken once said that “puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.” This comment resonates now more than ever, with the emergence of a new sanctimonious, humourless movement that targets all of the things that make life most worth living, from sports and comedy to art and food and special occasions.
My guest on the podcast today argues that history will likely not remember these “woke” zealots well — and that, at the heart of their movement, there is a deep distrust of humanity.
Noah Rothman is the associate editor of Commentary Magazine. He’s also the author of The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun.
Noah Rothman is my guest, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come tomorrow for paid subscribers.
The Rise of the New Puritans
From my position, roughly in the centre of the political spectrum, I now feel a bit less lonely. Thank you.
Rothman is 100% correct. Increasingly, this new puritanism is coming from the left, not the old "church lady" right. I have come to think that most progressives prefer behavioural solutions to technological problems, Covid a classic illustration of this phenomenon. But it's not limited to the pandemic, which instead seems to have unleashed the worst kinds of Cromwellian style Puritanism.
Examples of the latter: global warming? Don’t switch to zero carbon nuclear. Make everybody change their diet, commute, where they live etc.
Covid? Don’t throw money at vaccines and pills. Dictate rules of mask etiquette (even to the extremes of making kids wear masks when they are playing instruments).
Racism? Don’t prosecute actual criminal racists, that’s not enough, everybody must undergo diversity training.
They are control freaks who want to micromanage everyone’s personal behaviour and they really aren’t interested in technical or engineering solutions to technical or engineering problems. “Science” is only invoked to lend credibility to this or that apocalypse, which justifies transferring power from elected officials to unelected experts with letters after their names who will reprogram our behaviour and reshape society.