Puritanism

Summary

Dominique Pagani sees puritanism as an ideology that comes from Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture. According to him, it has dominated the world since Waterloo, alongside Anglo-Saxon leadership1. Its rigorism bears on social questions and above all on eros2. He refuses to speak of a neo-puritanism: for him it is the return of the old puritanism of the Churches, which makes everyone feel guilty3. He finds this matrix in contemporary morality: a certain feminism, punitive environmentalism, political correctness. These puritanisms take up religious discourse and serve to limit the consumption of the working classes45. Puritanism makes happiness suspect, and he describes it as allied with Islamist fundamentalism6. The Protestant obsession with the libido prevents one from going all the way with "know thyself"7. In music, he explains the rejection of Mozart by Gould's puritanism and by the difficulty Protestant cultures have in taking back someone who has sinned8. He also sees in the baroque performers' systematic staccato a fear that one might enjoy the note9.

1. 1From Plato to Proust6 Jul 2026 · 50:11
2. 2Beware of misreadings! Clouscard and the ideology of desire, in homage to Le Précepteur14 Jan 2023 · 17:32
3. 3Beware of misreadings! Clouscard and the ideology of desire, in homage to Le Précepteur14 Jan 2023 · 29:38
4. 4L for Liberty26 Dec 2014 · 9:23
5. 5Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: Clouscard, as relevant as ever2 May 2024 · 16:31
6. 6#5 Happiness versus the death drive in music11 Dec 2020 · 1:05:32
7. 7Worldliness in Clouscard: Aragon and the positivity of the negative29 Jun 2023 · 58:20
8. 8#14 Mozart once more7 Feb 2021 · 41:38
9. 9#14 Mozart once more7 Feb 2021 · 1:23:21

Summary produced automatically from 10 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.