Why is it that America seems to love a good "redemption story" ?

[Smith_3]

It seems like this is something that always draws alot of cheering. Someone who was "doing wrong" saw the light and changed. I mean, we have a president who denounced his "former ways" and who claims to have been saved by Jesus. But not only the right wingers do it. Here on DU often you see threads about former freepers who "saw the light", military members who became peace activists and so on. These threads usually get several recommendations. I wonder if it has to do with the "christian culture" where the archetype of the "lost sheep" is so prominent.

[elocs]

1. I think when it comes to Republicans there are many DUers who have no belief in redemption.

I think that is one of the things that America is about--redemption, and that is wonderful.

[Imagine My Surprise]

2. Because of its unfortunate association with Christianity...

and hero worship.

[supernova]

3. For so much of human history

living in a society meant that you got pegged early with one persona, one concept of who you are. Often this was tied to where you fell on the economic scale. People with less had less options in life. People with more, had more options, but those options were limited to those of their class. If you were poor, you worked the fields. If you were rich, you became a knight if you were first born, a clergyman if you were last born. There's more to it, but that's the basic outline. It didn't matter if you personally felt that persona was a good fit for you. For us women, it meant that we were wives and mothers and nothing else. You stayed that idea in others' minds until you died. It affected your schooling, if any, whom you were allowed to marry, and what kinds of jobs you could get.

Until arguably, the Renaissance and the American and French Revolutions.

The idea that you could change that story, the story you were born with if you wanted, is definitely new. That's why it is celebrated.