Protestants ♥ freedom and shit…or at least capitalism, which is facilitated by freedom and shit.

I was reading this post over at Tech Liberation Front, which quotes a passage from a 1975 book about telephony that mentions the relationship between the Calvinist work ethic and entrepreneurship, which was particularly pronounced in 19th century America:

[T]he economic rewards of invention under the U.S. patent system were great and well advertised; Bell and others like him knew well enough that the inventor and original backer of the telegraph had become millionaires, and his passion for secrecy about his experiments, along wit his early and intimate association with the Patent Office through Hubbard, suggest how well he realized he might be onto something commercially big. And he was urged on by both his philosophical background and the current social climate in America. The Scottish Calvinism of the nineteenth century made a primary virtue of material success achieved through hard work, and as an example Bell had his countryman Andrew Carnegie, twelve years his senior, who had come to the United States from Scotland in 1848 and by 1875 was already a millionaire in the process of consolidating the largest steel company in the world. As to the social climate, 1875 was the heyday in America of laissez-faire venture capitalism, when men had a kind of savage fury for fame and fortune that the more jaded twentieth century can scarcely conceive of.

Tim Lee, the post’s author, finds the last sentence of that passage out of step with today’s reality, but I disagree. The spirit of innovation and invention that swept America in the 19th century far surpasses the isolated pockets of innovation that exist in today’s America, and I think there are two reasons.

First is that innovation today is somewhat more difficult to detect: packing more information on a microchip or creating a cell phone that can take pictures is hardly an improvement in quality of life on par with the improvements afforded by electricity, light bulbs, telephones, elevators, steam engines, and yes, the dishwasher, which was invented by an Illinois socialite. Change is less dramatic today, and thus, there’s less opportunity for fame and fortune of the kind that 19th century inventors enjoyed. Who knows the name of the dude who invented the cell phone camera or the halogen light bulb? No one. But we all know Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. Of course there are occasional exceptions and notable inventors and innovators–like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, the Google dudes, etc.–but mostly people tend to think of them as the figureheads of multinational corporations, not rugged individualist inventors in the mold of their predecessors.

Second gets more at the mention of Calvinism in the passage. In addition to there being less of a sense of urgency about the physical need to invent things to make life better, the decline in religiosity is likely a significant contributor to the decline in the spirit of invention. I, for one, would work far harder in my secular vocation if a.) I believed in god and b.) I believed that god would prefer it if I worked harder. That’s sort of why I dig Calvinism, except for the whole austerity thing. No matter what you do in life, God has already chosen the elect, those who will be saved and get to chill in heaven. But to be a good Calvinist, you have to put a lot of zeal into proving to others that you’re part of the elect, by working as hard as you can in the name of God in this life. Now as a non-believer, keeping up appearances for the sake of others and showing that I’m part of the modern-day elect (read: the cool kids) is most of why I do the basic minimum to hold down a job. But hells yeah, if I thought god cared and wanted me to do better (and more importantly, if I thought I’d go to hell if I didn’t do better), maybe I’d put some effort into it.

Anyway, the relationship between protestantism and the roots of modern capitalism is pretty interesting: you should work hard, but not live lavishly–so what to do with your hard-earned pennies? Invest them in the means of more production! Jebus lubs investment in productive capital. If you’re interested and haven’t read it, Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is a pretty quick read, and it’s available for free online. Ironically. Religiosity declines and all of a sudden books are free! World gone mad.

Filed under: The Dismal Science, Consumerism Rulez, Jesus is Magic, Pop! Goes the Culture