The Age Of Puritanism

I have been wondering whether to mark the beginning of the present age with the passage of the Volstead Act, which introduced Prohibition to the USA. This was a species of Puritanism which demanded absolute obedience by all, and was intolerant of any deviation, and seems to presage the mid-century crusade of anti-Communism and loyalty oaths, the Vietnam War, and the rise of the surveillance state.

Maybe not.

I read two stories which give some light to the matter.
The first is from the age of Prohibition, around 1916:

Prohibition and Civilization
By Albert Jay Nock 
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/repository/prohibition-and-civilization/

... The advocates of prohibition ought to get a clear grasp of the fundamental objection to their theory, and meet it with something more substantial than feeble talk about the influence of “the liquor interests.” Our objection is to Puritanism, with its false social theory taking shape in a civilization that, however well-ordered and economically prosperous, is hideous and suffocating.

One can at least speak for oneself: I am an absolute teetotaler, and it would make no difference to me if there were never another drop of liquor in the world; and yet to live under any regime of prohibition that I have so far had opportunity to observe would seem to me an appalling calamity. The ideals and instruments of Puritanism are simply unworthy of a free people, and, being unworthy, are soon found intolerable. Its hatreds, fanaticisms, inaccessibility to ideas; its inflamed and cancerous interest in the personal conduct of others; its hysterical disregard of personal rights; its pure faith in force, and above all, its tyrannical imposition of its own Kultur: these characterize and animate a civilization that the general experience of mankind at once condemns as impossible, and as hateful as it is impossible...

 
Albert Jay Nock (1870 – 1945) was an American libertarian author, educational theorist, and social critic of the early and mid-20th century. This essay first appeared in The North American Review in 1916.
 

and we can compare this to a recent article:

Interrogate Thy Neighbor
By Rod Dreher • June 28, 2014, 8:13 PM
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/interrogate-thy-neighbor/

A reader writes:

I have had some new neighbors for several weeks. They are lesbians. They have been nice enough. We have spoken and I have helped them out with cutting some limbs on trees. Last night my wife made zucchini bread for the neighbors and we walked it over to them. One of them asked me what I read every evening outside. I told her I read a chapter in my Bible and some out of other books. She then proceeded to ask me what denomination I am. I told her Methodist. She asked if they recognized gay marriage. I said officially no. She then asked if I agreed with that. I said yes. She said that made her uncomfortable and that I made her feel threatened. I said sorry and left the food.
She stopped me as I was leaving and asked how could I hold to that old belief when people like the Episcopalians have shown that belief was not actually Biblical anymore. I intend on letting things lay low for a while and go on trying to be a good neighbor. Hopefully my actions can overcome their thoughts of me.

Can you believe this? The guy comes over to be a good neighbor by bringing his lesbian neighbors zucchini bread, and she gives him the third degree, then calls him “threatening” because he doesn’t share her opinion of gay marriage.
Why must we ideologize everything? What business is it of this prickly person’s to know what her neighbor’s religious beliefs are on anything. I bet that couple will have trouble making friends, because on the face of it, they are not friendly. They’ll probably chalk it up to homophobia, when the fact is, at least one of them is a jerk.

UPDATE: A happy ending is reported this morning by the reader who bore the zucchini bread:

I am on vacation now and will not be around much. Saturday afternoon one of the two women flagged me down. She apologized for her partner and wanted to remain on good terms. I said no problem. The defense she offered for her partner is that when she came out she was banished by her evangelical family. They have not talked in over 5 years. I now understand her reaction and feel sorry for the massive pain that she has in her life because of Christians acting unChristian.

Am I stretching things a bit by seeing the absolutism of Puritanism as at least one major defining factor of our age? An absolutism mixed with incredible technology and science?
Can you imagine a Puritan Prohibitionist taking a drink with a buddy to see what beer drinking is all about?
Can you imagine a country founded by Puritans escaping from religious oppression sanctioning genocide against the native inhabitants?

If a Teetotaler had the bomb, would they bomb all beer-pong parties back to the Stone Age?

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