The New ‘Puritans’

Henry Louis Mencken, America’s greatest raconteur journalist, famously described Puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone somewhere is having a good time.” In his essay “Puritanism as a Literary Force,” Mencken extended the argument, blaming this fear for deforming national culture. Americans, Mencken argued, habitually confused intellectual and aesthetic judgments with moral ones. Insistence that the true and the beautiful must be synonymous with the good not only stunted domestic genius but also prevented appreciation of superior foreign imports. Read Full Article »