I nearly laughed myself silly when I googled "Ulster Scots and predatory capitalism" and got a post from Ron Paul's website:
How the Scots Irish Screwed Up America
By Joe Bageant
You may not meet them among your circle of friends, but there are millions of Americans who fiercely believe we should nuke North Korea and Iran, seize the Middle East's oil, and replace the U.S. Constitution with the Christian Bible. They believe the United States will conquer the entire world and convert it to our notions of democracy and fundamentalist Christian religion. And that will happen says my Christian neo-conservative friend Dave Henderson, "when we elect a man with the balls to use our nukes." ...
http://www.dailypaul.com/...
When I recovered, I reveled in the delicious irony of it all.
Then, I read on.
Mr. Bageant is not in the least kind to these folk:
In understanding how such ominous political ideations manifested themselves in this country, it helps to look back 450 years to a group of Celtic cattle thieves killing one another in the mud along Hadrian's Wall -- the Borderers. Fanatically religious and war loving, these Scottish Protestants made their way first to Ireland as the "Ulster Scots," then to American shores during the early 18th century. Known to most Americans as the Scots Irish or Scotch Irish, the Borderers brought cultural values that govern (some would say screw up) the political emotions of millions of Americans to this day.
.... The homeland of the original Borderers was a squalid place. Denuded of forests and incapable of growing enough food to support its inhabitants, much less produce enough to sell within the traditional English culture of commerce, the natives survived by and gloried in "reiving", (cattle rustling.) It was a land of alternating famine and overpopulation, the only constant being warfare between England and Scotland along the fluctuating border. Rooted in centuries of national fighting -- and in those rare times of peace, inter-clan warfare among themselves -- they maintained their fierce ways, clan loyalties and holdings. The right to hold any turf they occupied was determined by their ability to defend it. Holding such miserable land was a worthwhile effort mainly in as far as it created clan proximity so it could be held. It was a vicious, near pointless circle. Given the unceasing looting, burning and moving, the Borderers built impermanent earth and log dwellings called "cabbins". Within their smoky cabins they lived a quick-tempered, hard drinking, volatile lifestyle, one that anthropologists say can still be seen in American trailer courts today. So the next time you see one of us drunkenly kicking in a neighbor's car door in some trailer court parking lot at 1 AM, try to remember: That's not a brawl you're witnessing, it's cultural diversity.
More importantly however, in the off time between fighting, the Borderers embraced the most fanatical form of Calvinism -- embraced it so thoroughly they almost hugged it to death. ...
Murderous cattle thieves? Fanatics?
Bageant goes on to discuss John Calvin as the father of "of American Christian fundamentalism," enlarging upon the theme of theocratic governance, "that any civil government was only as legitimate as the degree to which it was Biblical, and reserved the right to resist it on those grounds."
Alas, he fails to discuss the conversion of a prominent Ulster Scot, Andrew Mellon among others, American banker, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector and Secretary of the Treasury from March 4, 1921 until February 12, 1932, to Social Darwinism, which seems to have become inextricably twined with the economic dogma of Christian fundamentalism despite its embrace of Creationism and only Creationism and public denial of the theory of evolution.
Science also played an important part in social thought as the work of Charles Darwin became popular. Following Darwin’s idea of natural selection, English philosopher Herbert Spencer proposed the idea of social Darwinism. This new concept justified the stratification of the wealthy and poor and coined the term "survival of the fittest." Joining Spencer was Yale University professor William Graham Sumner whose book What Social Classes Owe to Each Other argued that assistance to the poor actually weakens their ability to survive in society. Sumner argued for a laissez faire and free market economy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Mellon's Social Darwinism, "survival of the fittest," was reflected in his economic policies while Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury:
He advised Herbert Hoover to "liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate... it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people." Additionally, he advocated weeding out "weak" banks as a harsh but necessary prerequisite to the recovery of the banking system. This "weeding out" was accomplished through refusing to lend cash to banks (taking loans and other investments as collateral), and by refusing to put more cash in circulation. He advocated spending cuts to keep the Federal budget balanced, and opposed fiscal stimulus measures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The ongoing permutation of Spencer's economic conservatism is still being played out in the continuing war against Social Security:
Economic conservatism was born in Britain, the offspring of Herbert Spencer, the theorist of Social Darwinism, which actually was antisocial and not Darwinist. Brought to America in infancy, economic conservatism was adopted by plutocrats like Andrew Carnegie and raised by the rich, who continue to be the chief audience of what is now an elderly and enfeebled doctrine.
Herbert Spencer believed that markets promoted "the survival of the fittest," a phrase he coined. The patron saint of free-market libertarians opposed even public sewage systems and public libraries. Even conservative politicians in modern democracies have repudiated this kind of market fundamentalism. Ronald Reagan refused to propose cuts in Social Security, and proposed to nationalize Medicaid. When George W. Bush pushed for diverting some Social Security payroll taxes into the casino of the stock market, the idea was so unpopular that a Congress controlled by Republicans refused even to debate it. Meanwhile, Bush and the Republican Congress, by enacting the Medicare drug benefit, created the first new healthcare entitlement since LBJ passed Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s.
Economic conservatism thus has good reason to be bitter while brooding in the nursing home, cursing Keynes and Roosevelt in a 19th-century British accent while propped up on pillows beneath the signed pictures of Herbert Spencer, Andrew Mellon and Milton Friedman. During election-year campaigns, conservative politicians wheel out the aged doctrine and promise that, cross their hearts, when elected they will abolish Social Security and privatize Medicare. But once they are in office, Republicans forget about their old friend until the next election cycle, although they may send signed cards to the nursing home during the holidays.
http://www.salon.com/...
I have never forgiven Andrew Mellon and his predation of my family's small wealth nearly a century ago. The mere descendant of Scottish cattle rustlers despoiling my family!