[lbo-talk] Thought for the day, from C. Wright Mills' The Power Elite

[Charles Brown]

CB: The idea Mills criticizes is actually denial of envy of
the rich. We want the proletariat to be consciously envious and act on
their envy, pace Nietzsche . Steinbeck claims that Americans entertain
an illusion that is sort of the obverse of the one Mills
describes:“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see
themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily
embarrassed millionaires.”

 Charles Brown <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
> This is plagerized from Doug on facebook. He might have to put me on moderation.
>
> Charles
>
> Thought for the day, from C. Wright Mills' The Power Elite:
>
> "The idea that the millionaire finds nothing but a sad, empty place at
> the top of this society; the idea that the rich do not know what to do
> with their money; the idea that the successful become filled up with
> futility, and that those born successful are poor and little as well
> as rich - the idea, in short, of the disconsolateness of the rich -
> is, in the main, merely a way by which those who are not rich
> reconcile themselves to the fact. Wealth in America is directly
> gratifying and directly leads to many further gratifications. To be
> truly rich is to possess the means of realizing in big ways one's
> little whims and fantasies and sicknesses...."