In Scotland, for the first time since the Reformation, the majority relgion is . . .

Catholicism.

We noted last week that the Reformation is passing away.  This is pretty good evidence of that.  The Church of Scotland, Presbyterianism, had been founded by severe Calvinists, some of them breakaway clerics of the Catholic Church during the traumatic period.  Calvin's theological views were not only unique to him alone, but difficult to swallow, and have accordingly been much muted over time.  Be that as it may, at this point, among those Christians declaring a denomination, Scots have and are returning to the pre "Reformation" church.

Liberal Economics.

[W]hat is bemoaned by the right is due not to the left but to the consequences of its own deepest commitments, especially to liberal economics. And it seeks to show that what is bemoaned by the left is due not to the right but to the consequences of its own deepest commitments, especially to the dissolution of social norms, particularly those regarding sexual behavior and identity. The “wedding” between global corporations and this sexual agenda is one of the most revealing yet widely ignored manifestations of this deeper synergy.

Patrick J. Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed.

You've heard what Deneen is observing here before, but it bears repeating.  We do not have a "free market" economic system, but rather a corporate capitalist one, which favors size over everything else, and which reduces individuals to "consumers", not people.  The economy serves only that, and operates exactly as Deneen notes.

Right wing economists and left wing ones, therefore, basically serve the same master, even if they fail to realize it. And everyone serves it in the end, rather than our economy, and everything in it, serving us.

Positive Indicators

A thread that looks at good trends.

Good news tends not to make the headlines, by and large.  Indeed, it's worth noting that one of the things that's so newsworthy about the Russo Ukrainian War is that it's a big conventional war. Those tend just not to happen anymore.

This isn't going to be cheerful, as it's in the contest of the purpose of this site, which is really focused on the first couple of decades of the 20th Century.  We're looking at good, long term, trends here that have hit the news somehow, recently.

May 1, 2023

Adult smoking hit an all-time low.  About 1 in 9 American adults are smokers.

The degree to which average Americans smoked in the 20th Century, after World War One, is stunning.   Women didn't start to really take it up until the 1920s, but by the 30s, everyone was smoking in earnest.

Teenage (high school) sexual activity is way down, with 30% reporting having had sex, down from over 50% a few decades back.

Teen pregnancy is also way down.  It's often not appreciated the degree to which this was common in the past.

Of course, this can be explained in more than one way, including the spike in young marriages in the 50s and 60s, but there are other explanations as well.