Stendhal le notait déjà dans ses Chroniques Italiennes (préface) : "la jeune Amérique où toutes les passions se réduisent à peu près au culte du dollar".
Hormis les premiers pèlerins, la plupart des immigrants vers les US ont été attirés par l'appât du gain, ce qui est somme toute fort compréhensible puisqu'il venaient pour l'essentiel des classes laborieuses et paysannes de la vieille Europe.
Cette obsession du dollar roi est toujours omniprésente dans la mentalité américaine. Combien de milliers de films ou de romans américains tournent autour de la recherche de l'enrichissement, du profit, de millions de dollars?
L'illustration la plus obscène à laquelle je pense, c'est la clôture (17h15 heure de Paris) de la bourse new yorkaise où des gens (qui?) sur un balcon qui semble dominer la salle des transactions applaudissent à tout rompre la fin de la journée. Comme un spectacle qui a ravi ses participants.
Certes le culte du veau d'or est bel et bien well and alive in the US. Ce qui peut sembler incongru dans un pays qui revendique si ouvertement sa croyance en Jésus Christ et à son message..
Rien de nouveau ici. On sait bien que les religions, toutes les religions, sont parfaitement adaptables aux passions humaines, vices et vertus confondus. Et moi qui croyais que Jésus avait chassé les marchands du temple...
Les marchands ont définitivement investi le temple pour n'en plus jamais sortir. Quel monde!
(Le culte du veau d'or par Poussin)
24 commentaires:
Ne pas oublier l'importance du protestantisme, et son rapport particulier à l'argent, preuve de la grâce du Seigneur envers l'homme de bien (de biens ?).
Un article assez intéressant sur la question.
Et pour te détendre un peu.
ZapPow mon ami tu m'as fait une belle frayeur! Ton FAI a changé une partie de ton IP et tu n'es plus identifié comme provenant de Martinique mais plus généralement de France. A moins que tu n'aies changé d'ordi.
Du coup je t'assure m'être fait du mauvais sang car je ne te voyais plus apparaître comme tu en as l'habitude. J'ai laissé la dernière vidéo de George Wallington à ton attention. Je viens de la remplacer.
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Pour le protestantisme oui bien sûr et c'est là qu'on mesure à quel point la Révocation de l'Édit de Nantes fut la plus désastreuse c...e de l'Histoire de France. Merci les Cathos!
Max Weber a dû faire le tour de la question avec son livre.
Toujours pressé j'avais mis de côté la lecture de ton premier lien (Revue Réformée, belle trouvaille) pour plus tard et je vois que Max Weber n'est pas la pierre angulaire de la réflexion sur le sujet.
J'ai l'air malin...
Oui, mais comme ils le disent eux même, Weber a fait un travail majeur, essentiel au débat, et sa théorie sur le rôle de la prédestination tient tout de même la route.
Flocon,
You know a lot more about Americans than I do about the French. Hell, you know more about Americans than I do. I could never write up an analysis of the French because I know too many people from France to come to any general conclusion vis-à-vis the behavior/feelings/zeitgeist of most of the French. Likewise, I know way too many people from the U.S. to arrive at any general conclusion vis-à-vis the behavior/feelings/zeitgeist of Americans. And most of the Americans I know are from New Mexico....
Combien de milliers de films ou de romans américains tournent autour de la recherche de l'enrichissement, du profit, de millions de dollars?
Oh, I get it. I should judge the values of the French based on the values in French films.
I've been receiving bad vibes from N.M this last couple of weeks.
Sarcasm is an efficient way to vent one's irritation and displeasure but a rather poor substitute for a reasoned and cogent counter argumentation though.
Which part of the post do you disagree with or makes you uncomfortable?
- The immigrants' motivation for coming to America?
- The number of novels and movies whose main topic is the search for money?
- The closing of the NY stocks exchange market were people applaud like if they had participated to a splendid show?
- The apparent paradox that the cult of the golden calf is well and alive in a country whose prez swears on the Bible at each U.S presidential inauguration?
- The paragraph about how the fundamental tenets of religions are twisted according to the whims and wishes of the believers?
- The final line where I state that traders and bankers have overrun the Temple?
Where has your nationalistic sensitivity been hurt?
Is the title, Mammon, offensive? Mr. Burns, the plutocrat par excellence, lives on 1000 Mammon Street. Last time I checked the Simpsons is an american animated sitcom.
Is the suggestion that money and religion are prevalent in the U.S mentality disputable?
Here is the ultimate representation that money has betrayed the very teaching of Christianity.
Would Jesus Christ have approved the printing of the motto In God we trust on each and every banknote and coin issued in the U.S?
And you tell me that when the Prez swears on the Bible and the In god we trust thing is printed on the money this is no indication of the American mentality?
Le pouvoir et l'argent ne sont donc pas associés à la religion chrétienne aux États-Unis? Well I didn't know. Thanks for helping me open my eyes.
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Other than that, the third mvt of the 2nd string quartet by Borodin is worth listening to. Enjoy.
've been receiving bad vibes from N.M this last couple of weeks
For the past few weeks you have been busy hammering away at how inferior Americans are. It doesn't exactly fill me with happiness and joy. Hmmm, I wonder why not?
You're right about all of it Flocon. I can't provide any good argumentation, just sarcasm. If only the U.S. could be as wonderful as France and if only I had your skills of reasoning and argumentation. Oh well.
Other than that, the third mvt of the 2nd string quartet by Borodin is worth listening to. Enjoy
Thanks. I'll think I'll stick with my Miles Davis and Jaco Pastorius.
I'll leave you with your ami ZapPow, and with Ned, and the three of you can have all kinds of interesting discussions about those silly bible-thumping money-grubbing Americans. I won't offer up anymore of my silly sarcasm. So sorry that I bothered you with it in the first place.
Wow! That is true love or I don't know what is then...
"For the past few weeks you have been busy hammering away at how inferior Americans are"
Huh?
Let's see the posts I wrote this month of May:
- To be or not ot be. Nothing to do with Americans.
- Le réel et l'imaginaire. I fail to see where are Americans described as inferior.
- Tea for two. An American song covered by American musicians.
- Aliénation intériorisée. Nothing to do with Americans.
- Mahmoud Ahmanidejad est mort. Nothing to do with Americans.
- Stunning. Nothing to do with Americans again, the issue was Strauss-Kahn, a French politician.
- A new world order. Although the post is dedicated to American international politics I fail to see where I suggest that Americans are inferior. It opened an interesting exchange which was left... well open, with 6 questions I asked which were left unanswered.
Speaking of this post, your first comment was clearly offensive to me since you imagined that I was going to write something related to revisionism which definitively wasn't the case. But then I swallowed my pain...
Also this little passage wasn't exactly fair nor elegant: "Since the media is controlled by Jewish journalists you should get your information only from a truth-telling blog".
- Orange juice or 2 - 2 = 1. I simply write how surprising the American judiciary is for non Americans. Nowhere is to be read that the rest of the world is better or superior or whatever to the U.S in this regard.
- L'aura. Nothing to do with Americans.
- A day in the life. Nothing to do with Americans.
- The law of the west is a post where I write that said law was historically a remnant of medieval Europe.
- Mammon. I have already answered to your gentle protests. The post deals with money, power and religion in America but where am I "hammering away at how inferior Americans are"?.
"If only the U.S. could be as wonderful as France". When was the last time you read something remotely akin to that pattern of thoughts on Shall we talk?.
Out of the last 12 posts, 7 have nothing to do with the U.S while three have because of the Strauss Kahn case.
Maybe you're too emotional in the wee hours of the day or maybe has my horoscope been very negative in the last couple of weeks which probably is the case :-D
It happened once before. ♥
I'm too emotional Flocon. yes...
PS
The Ben Tucker is wonderful
A couple of light bulb jokes I thought up.
-How many Americans does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: None. That job has been outsourced.
-How much money does an American family have?
Answer: I don't know. You have to ask the Chinese.
In the first place I thought these jokes that you thought up were somehow not related to the topic at hand but on second thought they are since they deal with social issues.
What's more they're not offensive to Americans otherwise you would have landed me into troubles.
Your jokes are funny indeed.I'm unable to think up jokes.
Didn't know that Jaco Pastorius. Impressive!
To keep in the lightbulb joke department, I should have said something like:
-How many light bulbs does it take to light up the White House xmas tree? The answer is the same.
Thanks Ned, this post was in bad need of light jokes, whether with bulbs or not.
Sorry for your creativity but I'm afraid this one is lost on me though.
Maybe there's a play on words here with light (lumière) and light (léger)?.
The same problem arouse when Light in August was tranlated into French.
Another light-hearted joke: Flocon loves Americans.. (well, perhaps he loves sexy nudish American pictures of American women ;) )
Anijo,
"perhaps he loves sexy nudish American pictures of American women"
Should I have added a pic of nude American men? Ok, I will do it (for your eyes only) then!
I seized the opportunity to learn how to post pictures in the side bar. It takes some minutes but I may refresh the bar on a regular basis.
Next step is how to post gif pics.
Ok, I will do it (for your eyes only) then!n
I must admit that the current gif is more pleasing to my eyes. ☺
Anijo,
SemperFidelis sent me some pics of him telling me I could dispose of them for good purpose, which I did then.
Also it's not a gif picture, just a regular JPG one.
gif pictures are animated ones made up with several elements.
I kind of remember you had one on your blog (A flying eagle or something).
As of today I don't know how to but I'll soon ask someone I know.
Light bulb jokes are an American tradition and you can find thousands of them. The two I created have to do with the economy. The second one also refers, indirectly, to outsourcing: it is the Chinese that make the bulbs and sell them to the bankrupt U.S.
As to jpgs and gifs, I use a software called Vueprint which quickly converts from one form to another. I imagine that google's Picasa does the same thing.
"Light bulb jokes are an American tradition"
I had no idea.
Thanks for the Vueprint tip, I'll have a try at it.
I think there are two stages here. The first one is to get gif pictures, the second one is to get a html code in order to post the pic.
Je vais essayer pour m'amuser mais je ne crois pas que cela apporte beaucoup au blog si ce n'est d'attirer le regard... On verra.
As to Mammon, I had an interesting experience when I was in the U.S.
My sister took me to a Walmart, which scared the hell out me because it was so large.
On leaving with our purchases in a caddie, an elderly man asked if we needed help. We said no and continued. My sister doesn't live in the U.S. either, and later I learned from a friend that the man was not an employee of Walmart but waited there to take packages for people to their cars for tips. That was his income.
I also learned that people squat in or near shopping center parking lots so that they can go in and use the toilets and sinks.
As the movie title says, "It's a Wonderful Life."
L'anecdote de cet homme fait penser aux Roumains (en général) qui proposent aux automobilistes de laver leurs pare-brises aux carrefours.
Poverty is spreading in the world like an unstoppable virus.
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