> Marx said the better a ruling class is able to incorporate the
> natural leaders of the oppressed class, the more solid & dangerous
> its rule.
>
> Doug
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[talk about unintended consequences; i've been doing digging on the connection re the old thread on the holy ghost becoming the invisible hand and the law of unintended consequences and stumbled on the quote in one of Elster's essays on functional explanations. it's also apropos the similar thread on pen-l]
<http://www.geocities.com/hmelberg/elster/AR82MFGT.HTM>
The circumstance that a man without fortune but possessing energy, solidity, ability and business acumen may become a capitalist in this manner (i.e., by receiving credit] - and the commercial value of each individual is pretty accurately estimated under the capitalist mode of production - is greatly admired by the apologists of the capitalist system. Although this circumstance continually brings an unwelcome number of new soldiers of fortune into the field and into competition with the already existing individual capitalists, it also reinforces the supremacy of capital itself, expands its base and enables it to recruit ever new forces for itself out of the sub-stratum of society. In a similar way, the circumstance that the Catholic Church in the Middle ages formed its hierarchy out of the best brains in the land, regardless of their estate, birth or fortune, was one of the principal means of consolidating ecclesiastical rule and suppressing the laity. The more a ruling class is able to assimilate the foremost minds of a ruled class, the more stable and dangerous becomes its rule.
[substitute evangelical xtians on the right........]