Posted on 08/04/2020 5:30:05 AM PDT by Kaslin
Students of American history will recall the colorful figure of Carrie Nation, who in her enthusiasm for the temperance movement, took to whacking up saloons with a hatchet. The six-foot-tall Nation would later go on to earn her a living from her notoriety by selling small axes as souvenirs.
Nation’s avid co-laborers in the temperance movement would later succeed in passing legislation prohibiting all alcohol consumption.
The broad sweep of what she and others saw as a deleterious influence on individual and national health and welfare accomplished little in the way of removing the scourge of alcoholism.
But the temperance movement did assist in accelerating the rise in criminal enterprises, fostering a general contempt for civil authorities and an undermining of civil authority, particularly in the big cities; which saw a tremendous explosion of criminal enterprises interested in supplying booze to the thirsty American public. Law enforcement was often diverted from pursuit of serious criminality and government corruption while officers’ energies were consumed by arrests of alcohol-consuming citizens and smashing barrels of beer.
But in addition to nearly decapitating law and order, Prohibition eliminated something enormously important to American democracy, as John Grinspan pointed out in his New York Times article, titled, “The Saloon, America’s Forgotten Democratic Institution.”
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I don’t drink, and now my personal temperance is demonized and ridiculed. I know from experience. Even from other so-called “Christians.”
The temperance movement had a point. Either alcohol would be controlled, or it would control.
Flame on.
Interesting take.
The author describes how the Puritans were terrible people, too.
The Puritans were decent, humble people of whom some left England to start a truly better life away from the licentious ways of Britain. They were the American colonies that prospered.
If you don’t like them, then drink your head off.
Nobody is demonizing your temperance. If you read the rest of the article, you’d see that he talks about prohibiting sitting at the table talking and ordering drinks after a meal, even coffee klatches at McDonalds, social gatherings of any sort, and preventing people from talking to each other by enforcing mask orders. Bars were traditionally a place where men sat and talked to each other on the issues of the day, and thus are perceived as a special threat to the state.
This has nothing to do with pushing “temperance.” He’s talking about how prohibiting alcohol serving at various places is being used as a means of stifling public gatherings and discussion that might lead to the revolt of the deplorables.
And he makes a very good point...that is exactly what I have always thought the shut-down of bars and alcohol serving restaurants was all about.
Same here
I don't drink either, but I am not a teetotaler like you seem to be. I just can't drink much, even water
You're not alone.
Good article.
I don’t think the author made a strong connection to it, but the thesis goes beyond bars and into social media. As Twitter and other platforms shut down Conservative messages, we lose that environment — just like shutting down the bars. Of course, the bars (i.e. Twitter) remain open for the Left so they can have comradery and make plans and such. They get all those benefits. But the Conservatives are expected to go home and drink alone, so to speak.
I rarely drink but certainly don’t mind those who do, in a self controlled manner. Sadly both sides of my family are heavy drinkers. They don’t drink ever day but when they do they dont stop till they fall over. On my wife’s side they drink regularly and don’t seem to have an off switch when they have had enough. My kids have had to battle with both problems. It has turned me off drinking at all.t
From the story:
H.L. Mencken = Hater of Christians and heavy drinker and smoker (family owned tobacco farms.
G.K. Chesterton = Catholic and heavy drinker (https://catholichousehold.com/chestertons-lack-temperance-block-canonization/)
So, of course they come out against the Puritans from hundreds of years before either were born, because they don’t understand them and think, perhaps rightly so, that the Puritans were intent on following a holy life, which excluded loose sex and drinking.
And you know this, how?
[[[I don’t drink, and now my personal temperance is demonized and ridiculed. I know from experience. Even from other so-called “Christians.”]]]
Perhaps you should reassess who your friends and acquaintances are if they can’t grasp that some people just don’t drink.
I don’t either and have never been demonized or ridiculed for it. A simple no thanks is usually sufficient.
The Puritans’ reputation for being humorless, fanatical, judgmental, intolerant, holier-than-thou killjoys was well earned. This is where obnoxious Yankees originated from after all. The Neo Puritans of today (Wokeratti) are very similar to the original Puritans in many ways.
Like every political movement, it had its surface motivations, and an underlying core.
In this case, feminism (and the drive to give women the right to vote) was intrinsically linked to the temperance movement.
Some of the biggest leaders of the women's temperance movement were leftist lesbians (no, I am not making this up). Burn's series even discusses this.
There was also a "revenge" factor at work. Such as: "If men won't give us the right to vote, we will ruin their places of camaraderie, laughter, and gathering!"
In fact, the repeal of the 18th Amendment only gathered steam when a very wealthy, very well spoken, very politically connected Republican woman started funding, organizing, and speaking out against prohibition. Suddenly, the "women thing" was solely for prohibition, and it drastically altered the political dynamic.
Myself, I don't drink, so I am not advocating drunkenness or a pro-alcohol stance. But this is a much more complicated historical tapestry here than just "Wet-Dry."
Unlike Eastwood's Gran Torino, I didn't learn THAT brand of male conversation, but I DID learn to be a boy with his dad and be quiet and listen.
I have been able to find a gentlemen's barber wherever I have moved in my 72 years, but the only guy in town is by appointment only and may even be shuttered by now.
We have lost if all us old folks die before we get rid of the Satanic commie influence in America.
“The Puritans’ reputation for being humorless, fanatical, judgmental, intolerant, holier-than-thou killjoys was well earned.”
Really? Can you provide proof of your assertions?
You want to argue that that wasn't their reputation? These are the people who brought you the Salem Witch Trials.
I should add Roger Williams founded Rhode Island just to get the hell away from these people so he and others who agreed with him could have freedom of worship and freedom of expression. The Puritans would tolerate neither.
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