wealth had developed causing feelings of shame to grow as a result of these unanticipated consequences (PE pg. 157). The shame came from the sense that through this wealth they were more apt to give in to sin such as flesh and luxury (PE pg. 157). Yet the Protestants were able to mask this shame by saving their wealth for accumulation. This deferred gratification provided calming feelings because they were still working in their calling for God. The result of wealth was justified because their calling was directed to please God since it was his intention to have the Protestants make this wealth (PE pg. 163). I believe the Protestants felt that they had agency to serve God in a way that made them feel useful to society, which also helped them justify their wealth. Through the whole structure of work and profit they were able to express their talents to the world as well as God (Sewell pg. 20). I feel that these tie into the structure for capitalism which I believe sprang from the thought process that if you work hard you will receive wealth and in turn will allow you to gain material resources. Today, we work hard for a living to provide for our loved ones and ourselves. I feel in comparison to the Protestants, we have lost our sense of direction towards working in the glorification of God to working for money and prestige (PE pg. 72). I see society as a vast majority of people going on with their daily lives working in a structure based on time and money. We all want to live our lives to the fullest through agency and happiness. Through mass media we are bombarded with material things that pressure us to work harder and harder to gain wealth and toys. In my opinion, society has totally lost touch with the Protestant ethic. We work hard to please ourselves and not for God (PE pg. 53). I see society as a bunch of sheep being herded around by the media who tell us what is in and what is good for us. Nothing is ever good enou...
