The Business of Religion

Mr. Bolos gave us a quote in class a few days ago, "the business of religion is the business of the puritans". Now after some explanation, I understood it meant that the puritans loved their religion and liked to talk about, business being in a social sense. However, when I read it initially, the thought of the puritans making money off of religion came to mind. Although that wasn't really the message of the quote, it got me thinking about the profitability of religious groups and prompted me to research this. I came across an NPR broadcast entitled Inside the Business of Religion on this topic (link). The report says that "there are plenty of companies that make money helping people develop spiritually" and states that the market research firm Packaged Facts estimates that Americans will spend 8.6 billion dollars this year on religious products. Daniel Radosh, a guest on the program, states that he believes it is important that a religious group that intends to take part in commerce, then "they should be representing the highest principles of that religion". He also states that one of his motives for starting his own business was to model these high standards and principles, almost in a way of expressing faith through the way commercial proceedings are held. I found this broadcast very interesting and even a little relevant to The Crucible because of how the people of Salem love to talk about religion and we love to spend money on religion.

The Power of Crowds

In AS class, we have talked about both the wisdom and ignorance of crowds. This is the concept that many people collaborating can problem solve very quickly and be effective in many ways, and at the same time that group of people, with the wrong motives, could influence and control the opinions of every group member. I think that the puritan society in The Crucible is an example of both those concepts fused together. On one hand, the collective beliefs and goals of these people have helped them to form a very successful society, which had previously been uncommon in the "wilderness" of the new world. In addition, however, the combined perpetrating force of the society allows these people to commit the horrible accusations and punishments brought upon the alleged witches of the town. In this way, a society of dedicated, hard working people with essentially nothing but good intentions became a dark chapter in history, stained with the story of the witch trials. This awful history brings me to the question: although not to the severe degree of the witch trials, does a society of like-minded people always bring both strength through unity and ignorance, or could a society exist with only the positives?

Controlling the Past

In AS class we have been talking a lot about how our views of the past as a society change over time. I've been thinking about how I see the meaning of the quote Mr. O'Connor gave us from 1984, "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." The first section has an obvious meaning to me, that the present is constantly becoming the past, so one who has control over what is occurring in the present subsequently controls the past as those events they controlled when they were present become past. But then I realized there was another meaning as well. The one in power during the present gets to control how past events are perceived. In this way, controlling the present gives one control over not only the history of their time in power, but also the historical recollection of past events before their time in power. My initial interpretation of the second section relied on the assumption that past events and our present interpretation of them dictate what future decisions are made. I point this out as an assumption because I have seen, many times in fact, that a society can be prone to making the same mistake twice. Because of this, I sought a different way to interpret this piece of the quote. I believe it means that one who is in power in the present, and therefore controls the past, can use evidence from the past (which they control) to justify and rationalize decisions for the future.