リチャード・ウィーバー
In contrast, "devil terms" are the mirror image, and include words such as Communist and Un-American. Rhetoric, Weaver argued, must employ such terminology only with care. Employing ethical rhetoric is the first step towards rejecting vague terminology with propagandistic value. Upon hearing a "god" or "devil" term, Weaver suggested that a listener should "hold a dialectic with himself" to consider the intention behind such persuasive words. He concluded that "a society's health or declension was mirrored in how it used language". If a language is pure, so too will be those who employ it.
In a short speech delivered to the 1950 reunion of the Weaver clan, Weaver criticized urban life in Chicago as follows: "the more closely people are crowded together, the less they know one another". In a comparative study of Randolph of Roanoke and Thoreau, Weaver defined "individualism" in two ways: 1) "studied withdrawal from society" (i.e. Thoreau) and 2) "political action at the social level" (i.e. Randolph). Thoreau (according to Weaver) rejected society while Randolph embraced social bonds through politics.
The noncreedal faith that Weaver advocated (he was a nonpracticing Protestant) grew out of what he termed the South's "older religiousness." The "religion" emphasized a respect for tradition and nature and for the Anglican/Episcopal church, the established church in Virginia and south during the colonial era. Weaver agreed with the traditional Christian notion that external science and technology could not save man, who was born a sinner and in need of redemption.
Weaver believed that the South was the "last non-materialist civilization in the Western World." Weaver came to advocate a revival of southern traditions as the only cure for a commodity-based capitalism. He believed it was a way to combat the social degradation that he witnessed while he lived in Chicago.
ウィーバーは、反消費主義(anti-consumerism)や騎士道精神といったアメリカ南部の伝統的なプリンシパルを守り抜くことを強く信条とし、これらの原則は、ウィーバーの教育、執筆、講演の基礎となっていた。
強固な道徳観を持って育ったウィーバーは、宗教を家庭と文明の基盤と考えていた。このことは、大学在学時のクリスチャン・エンデバー・ソサエティでの演説や、その後の著作に表れている。
ウィーバーが影響を受けたケンタッキー大学の教授陣は、殆どが中西部の出身で、社会民主主義的傾向を持っており、また世界恐慌の危機にも影響を受けたウィーバーは、産業資本主義がアメリカの道徳、経済、知的な全般的失敗を引き起こしたと信じていた。当初は、社会主義が産業主義文化に代わる選択肢になると考え、アメリカ社会党のケンタッキー州支部に参加した。1932年には、社会党の旗手であるノーマン・トーマスの選挙に積極的に参加した。その数年後、彼はスペイン内戦で王党派に資金を提供した。その後、トリシア・マクミラン博士のような知識人との出会いが、彼の社会主義に対する考えを揺るがすことになる。