You'll have to forgive me for the political pontification. I know that it was in vogue to post pseudo-political posts months ago, but this is an idea that I've been mulling over for the past few days, and I want to flesh it out.
The Seven Deadly Sins are out of date. These theological vices don't have the same negative qualities as they once did. People are now supposed to take pride in their work, gluttony is all the rage, lust equals great ratings, anger is healthy, greed is inspiration, sloth is every single invention in the past fifty years, envy is why we have magazines and lifestyles of the rich and famous tv shows. These vices come from hundreds of years ago and hold deep roots in Christian values.
Philosopher Judith Shklar argues that the new vices are cruelty, hypocrisy, snobbery, betrayal, and misanthropy. Cruelty is at the heart of lots of other crimes, like rape and murder, hypocritics are annoying, betrayal is low, no one likes a snob, and you have to at least pretend to like mankind.
Do you get where I'm going with this? Red states, the more religious of the bunch, care more about ancient Christian values that don't hold the same oomph as they once did. That's why Clinton had his scandals, why white trash delight in cheap tabloids, why everyone's overweight, why people cling to the concept that America is the best, and the rest of the world is the worst.
In contrast, Blue states, the more secular, care less about the vices with religious overtones and more about the new vices. That's why blue states dislike Bush so much. Cruelty? There was that whole torture thing. Hypocrisy? Check. Snobbery? Check. Betrayal? Maybe. Misanthropy? Bush must hate the world. How else could you explain everything that he's done to fuck up the world?
Am I making sense here? Spring break starts for me ubersoon, and plus it's St Patricks day, so I'm mostly just skimming over this theory, but does it hold water?
