ATDTDA (7): 192-194 decoding

[Monte Davis]

> Strenuosity - again I'm wondering about the capitalization - 
> Answers.com WordNet says it means "intense energy," but the context 
> here makes it sound like some pseudo-religious cult

Damn near, for a few years there -- Teddy Roosevelt's _The Strenuous Life_
came out in 1900, and you can read his live pitch for the idea here.

http://www.bartleby.com/58/1.html

Along with Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts in the UK and allied movements
elsewhere -- maybe from Spengler and social Darwinism plus rapid
urbanization, there was a widespread anxiety that modern life was turning
out effete youth, prone to corruption if they didn't get a good cold shower
and long march before breakfast.