Cooperative Adversaries

I belong to no organized political party. I'm a Democrat -- Will Rogers

Compromise came to America because of necessity. There were so many divergent views that adjustments on both sides had to be made. Otherwise, the house divided would fall. And the extremist cry of "No surrender!" only leads to continued violence.
   The Puritans came to America because they refused to compromise their religious beliefs -- they wanted to "purify" the church of practices that, for them, bordered on the Satanic. Once here, however, they could practice and enforce their own strict rules without interference.
   In the small communities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, this insistence on conformity worked well enough, since anyone who disagreed would either leave or face the harsh discipline of the puritanical leadership.
   The irony is that in England, those who disagreed were called Nonconformists. And when Roger Williams disagreed, he left Massachusetts to start a new colony in Rhode Island.
  
 "To the true believer in a Faith, the opponent is not only in error but in sin. Dissent is disapproved of not only intellectually but also morally. Their cannot be any excuse for (dissent) once the Message has been revealed."

So wrote economist Joseph Schumpeter in his 1942 book Democracy, Socialism and Capitalism. He was not referring to religion, however, but to Marxism.
   Today, many subscribe to their economic doctrines with an almost religious fervor, and any who disagree are heretics, to be dealt with accordingly.
   But what is a heretic, other than someone who disagrees with "established" doctrine?
   The Puritan tradition in America is alive and well, and living in the hearts and minds of those who refuse to compromise.