On Sat, Mar 08, 2003 at 05:02:04PM -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> >I'd think that the true measure of membership in the ruling class is
> >to be able to found a university
>
> That's a measure of being rich, but being rich isn't the same as
> being in the r.c. That awful reactionary Catholic who founded
> Domino's, Tom Monaghan, has started a uni or law school or something
> on reactionary Catholic principles, but that's not going to have much
> influence on mainstream education policy.
>
> >There are some powerful individuals and families who are members of
> >both the power elite and the ruling class, but the former and the
> >latter are not the same. The ruling class do not have to legitimate
> >their wealth themselves; they generally delegate tasks of management
> >and legitimation to the power elite and their hirelings.
> >Prestigious universities' raison d'etre, I think, is to select and
> >school sons and daughters of the low bourgeoisie, the petty
> >producers (doctors, lawyers, etc.), and ambitious members of the
> >working class into service to the ruling class.
>
> My experience of Yale was that it had a hybrid function - in part
> doing what you say. "The better a ruling class is at absorbing the
> natural leaders of the oppressed class, the more solid & dangerous
> its rule," as Marx said (or something like it - I'm doing it from
> memory). But there are also lots of serious ruling class kids there
> too, and the place is drenched with the images and histories of their
> ancestors. They're part of the temptation - admission to a joint like
> Yale is like an invitation to try out for the r.c., even though your
> surname might not be on a building for a generation or three.
>
> Doug
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu