On 07/01/2014, at 10:28 AM, Charles Brown <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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 millionnaires.”
I maintain we can work with that. It is no compromise of socialist principle to advocate a society in which the benefits and privileges of the capitalist class (excepting of course the right to exploit others) be extended to all. Calling for the rich to be dragged down to the level of the proletariat was never a realistic propaganda tactic.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas