“Economic man and the Calvinist Christian sing to each other like voices in a fugue. The Calvinist stands alone before an almost merciless God; no human agency can help him; his church is a means to political and social organization rather than a bridge to deity, for no priest can have greater knowledge of the divine way than he himself; no friend can console him — in fact, he should distrust all men; in the same fashion, Economic Man faces a merciless world alone and unaided, his hand against every other's.”

— Lionel Trilling

Source: Matthew Arnold (1939), Ch. 8: The Failure of the Middle Class

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Lionel Trilling 30

American academic 1905–1975

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