America’s absence of feudal tradition produced a universal work ethic across classes
Evidence
It will show that in general divorce is particularly frequent among the upper classes. This demonstrates the moral gap in the United States between the working masses and the ever more numerous elements of the ruling classes. This moral gap seems to me one of the most interesting phenomena and one which is most rich in consequences. Until recently the American people was a working people. The “vocation of work” was not a trait inherent only in the working class but it was a specific quality of the ruling classes as well. The fact that a millionaire continued to be practically active until forced to retire by age or illness and that his activity occupied a very considerable part of his day, is a typically American phenomenon. This, for the average European, is the weirdest American extravagance. We have noted above that this difference between Americans and Europeans is determined by the absence of “tradition” in the United States, in so far as tradition also means passive residues of all the social forms eclipsed by past history. In the United States, on the other hand, there is a recent “tradition” of the pioneers, the tradition of strong individual personalities in whom the vocation of work had reached its greatest intensity and strength, men who entered directly, not by means of some army of servants and slaves, into energetic contact with the forces of nature in order to dominate them and exploit them victoriously. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1126
Categorization
- DEFINE: Gramsci defines ‘tradition’ as passive residues of eclipsed social forms, and uses it to explain America’s distinctive work culture.
- XREF: Connects to Gramsci’s broader theory of hegemony — tradition as sedimented common sense shapes class consciousness and culture. — connects to: The American absence of shame at paid work perpetuates economic injustice — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 217