Puritan Influence On Modern American Society

You were born into this world. Prior to your birth, the backstory of how you came to be is already written. It is a chapter of your life that shapes you into who you are today. You were not the author of your own life at that time but you cannot escape from your past that was printed in ink. And neither can we. Modern America will never escape the history left behind by the Puritan society. The flaws that we have in our current society are of Puritan origin and are splitting images of them.
After being born, we are raised under the influences of Puritanism. From The Lost Generation to Generation Alpha, all children are indoctrinated to value education. Puritans too, value education and it is embroidered into American history by the building
From the infamous novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester, the sinner, suffers an everlasting punishment. She is chastised by carrying the weight of a scarlet letter and with that, she is in the proximate vision of the judgmental and is shamed to the bone. In the Puritan era, once one commits a sin and is discovered, it is broadcasted to the entire town. Identically, modern day America shares the same slandering methods. This is established by Tim Kreider who wrote the article, “The repugnance of moral scolds”. In Kreider’s view, “... the quaint old institution of the public pillory, and the lust for judgment and punishment, is alive and thriving on the internet.” The essence of Kreider’s argument is that yes, we are like the Puritans with the internet in place of the public pillory. Sins of all sorts are being exposed to the vast world of social media every day, every hour, every minute, every second. And of course, under the comment section of each video, post and article, there are guaranteed to be “stone-throwers”. The process of how ignominy buries the sinner is no different from the 1600’s and the 2000’s : the deed is plotted, sadists dig up the dirt and the sinner is uprooted to the surface for all to see and wither away from remorse. We are equivalent with the Puritans by mortifying the wrongdoer with the same intention in mind: self-pleasure. Our flawed, sadistic
He addresses two Puritanical tendencies that are apparent in parents of today: being a buzzkill and a clean freak. In addition to the evidence that Oppenheimer provided in his article, I have had similar experiences with ablutomaniac parents. Circling back to childhood, every meal without fail consisted of double handwashing with soap and water then finishing off with hand sanitizer. Thankfully, this miserable child was not me. Overdoing perfectionism on a toddler does not do any favors for the parent. In fact, it backfires. As Oppenheimer concludes, “It makes no sense to re-enslave ourselves with fear, worry, and stress.” However, sacrificing is what a parent excels at, especially for their little loved ones. Taking on additional stress may be rewarded later on with a healthy, obedient child. Be that as it may, this is the starting line for yet another endless life cycle of