What have the Romans ever done for us?
Should politicians who urge us to reduce our air travel also reduce their own air-travel? The Economist this week has an article about the differences between northern and southern Europe concerning personal morality of politicians, particularly regarding climate change issues. Northern European citizens seem more concerned than those in the South to ensure consistency of politicians’ words and actions. The Economist traces this difference in public attitudes to the different relative prevalance of Protestantism and Catholicism?
“Climate change is a tough case because it covers two distinct forms of behaviour: legal v. illegal (dumping toxic waste, killing whales) and ethical v. unethical (not wasting food or energy). Northern Europeans say that this is precisely why the power of example matters, for they see legal and ethical behaviour as part of a continuum. Southerners reply that social pressure is more effective than political pressure at influencing unethical behaviour, and that politicians ought to restrict themselves to law-making, where they will have more impact than they ever could as individual consumers.
These differences also have religious roots that are not easy to pull up. It is no coincidence that a map of north and south follows the contours of Protestant and Catholic Europe. Protestantism’s fundamental insight is that the relationship between the believer and God matters above all. Catholics, in contrast, hold that the relationship between believer and church is almost as important, and that the church, with its dogmas and rituals, acts as intermediary between its members and God. There may be a connection between these beliefs and the mindsets which hold, in one part of Europe, that what matters is the personal example of politicians and, in another, that it is the laws they pass.”
But, of course, this does not really explain the difference. One then has to ask, Why is the majority of southern Europe mostly Catholic, whereas northern Europe is mostly Protestant? Is the ultimate cause for these differences that Southern Europe was mostly conquered by the Romans and became part of the Roman Empire, while northern Europe was mostly not? Are policy differences on climate change partly a consequence of diverse local military victories two millenia ago?