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Also are you are familiar with the work of Hans Nielsen Hauge in Norway? "The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson
Oh my! Yes indeed, there were many Hauge Lutherans who settled around here. In fact, my parents are buried in an old Hauge churchyard.
These were interesting folks--at a distance. They were so theologically conservative that they believed, for example, that the music of J.S. Bach was too flamboyant for church!! On the other hand, they were almost Social Democrats when it came to economics--public ownership of railways, utilities, etc.
The Veblens were not Hauges. The church they attended was served by a preacher sent with official blessings of the Lutheran church in Norway (Denmark). The folks at Valley Grove (Veblen's church) were not actually anti-Hauge like some in the neighborhood, however. Some of the other rural churches refused burial to Hauge folks and only allowed them burial outside the churchyard fence.
For more information on the church Thorstein Veblen tried to escape as quickly as possible, go to: http://www.valleygrovemn.com/ Confession. I am so impressed by the story of TBV's parents that I now serve on the Valley Grove Preservation Society because that is where they were buried. "Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"
I am seriously interested in the remarkable (but little-known) work Hauge did in Norway in promoting enterprise in Norway, and some argue that he single-handedly started the process of Norway's development from an agrarian to modern society.
His approach would be recognisable as a "Social Enterprise" approach in terms of its in-built cooperativism and mutualism. I am bringing to the Institute a partnership-based enterprise model which, I believe, is intuitively Haugean in its values.
The Lutheran/religious aspects of Hauge are a side issue to me: it is the values that underpin his practical work that interest me.
Your Diary re Veblen, and his alternative critique of Capitalism is extremely consistent with my own, except that I am looking at different assumptions in terms of property rights and so on. "The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson
Some years ago when I was doing research on Midwest progressive movements, someone loaned me a very obscure book written here in Minnesota by a Hauge preacher's wife in the late 1880s. She was quite the economic radical--especially for USA. And most surprisingly for someone associated with a religious group that is SO pietistic.
St. Olaf college is four blocks from the house so I know it well. And since at least 1/3 of the Norwegian immigrants who settled around here were Hauges, I am not surprised at their interest. But it is a pretty conservative place so I imagine they will be shocked when they discover Hauge economics.
Ah yes, the Norskies--much more complex than they first appear! "Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"
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