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The Power Elite is a 1956 book by sociologist C. Wright Mills, in which Mills calls attention to the interwoven interests of the leaders of the military, corporate, and political elements of society and suggests that the ordinary citizen is a relatively powerless subject of manipulation by those entities.
The book is something of a counterpart of Mills’ 1951 work, White Collar: The American Middle Classes, which examines the then-growing role of middle managers in American society. A main inspiration for the book was Franz Leopold Neumann’s book Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism in 1942, a study of how Nazism came into a position of power in a democratic state like Germany. Behemoth had a major impact on Mills.
According to Mills, the eponymous “power elite” are those that occupy the dominant positions, in the dominant institutions (military, economic and political) of a dominant country. Their decisions (or lack thereof) have enormous consequences, not only for the Americans but, “the underlying populations of the world.” The institutions which they head, Mills posits, are a triumvirate of groups that have succeeded weaker predecessors:
“two or three hundred giant corporations” which have replaced the traditional agrarian and craft economy,
a strong federal political order that has inherited power from “a decentralized set of several dozen states” and “now enters into each and every cranny of the social structure,” and
the military establishment, formerly an object of “distrust fed by state militia,” but now an entity with “all the grim and clumsy efficiency of a sprawling bureaucratic domain.”
Importantly, and as distinct from modern American conspiracy theory, Mills explains that the elite themselves may not be aware of their status as an elite, noting that “often they are uncertain about their roles” and “without conscious effort, they absorb the aspiration to be… The Ones Who Decide.” Nonetheless, he sees them as a quasi-hereditary caste. The members of the power elite, according to Mills, often enter into positions of societal prominence through educations obtained at eastern establishment universities like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. But, Mills notes, “Harvard or Yale or Princeton is not enough… the point is not Harvard, but which Harvard?”
Mills identifies two classes of Ivy League alumni, those were initiated into an upper echelon fraternity such as the Harvard College social clubs of Porcellian or Fly Club, and those who were not. Those so initiated, Mills continues, receive their invitations based on social links first established in elite private preparatory academies, where they were enrolled as part of family traditions and family connections. In this manner, the mantle of the elite is generally passed down along familial lines over the generations.
The resulting elites, who control the three dominant institutions (military, economy and political system) can be generally grouped into one of six types, according to Mills:
the “Metropolitan 400”: members of historically notable local families in the principal American cities, generally represented on the Social Register
“Celebrities”: prominent entertainers and media personalities
the “Chief Executives”: presidents and CEOs of the most important companies within each industrial sector
the “Corporate Rich”: major landowners and corporate shareholders
the “Warlords”: senior military officers, most importantly the Joint Chiefs of Staff
the “Political Directorate”: “fifty-odd men of the executive branch” of the U.S. federal government, including the senior leadership in the Executive Office of the President, sometimes variously drawn from elected officials of the Democratic and Republican parties but usually professional government bureaucrats
Mills formulated a very short summary of his book: “Who, after all, runs America? No one runs it altogether, but in so far as any group does, the power elite.”
Commenting on The Power Elite, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. derisively said, “I look forward to the time when Mr. Mills hands back his prophet’s robes and settles down to being a sociologist again.”
Nonetheless, consideration of the book has become moderately more favorable over time. In 2006, G. William Domhoff wrote, “Mills looks even better than he did 50 years ago”. Mills’ biographer, John Summers, admitted that The Power Elite was “vulnerable to the charge of conspiracy-mongering” but declared that its historical value “seems assured”.
..(read more at source)
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The problem is people think they can be ignorant and free, which thing never was and never will be.
People still think Social Security is a good idea. People who think government controlled Social Security is a good idea have already lost the mental and moral capacity for freedom.
Did not have a reliable internet with Joe Rogan Experience back then…
When the title doesn't even reflect that the USA is a Republic…I move along.
So what's new? Post-WWII? I guess the author never read about the corruption in DC during the Civil War, etc.
We will be faced with a decision. Money will be no good. The media will be making the world look like it's falling apart. We will be faced with displacement starvation violence death destruction and be offered the choice to be taken care of by the system for ever or trust God's plan.
So how many of the mask zombies with passports are here pretending they ain't the slaves.
Even almost 30 years ago it was like this and today its a lot worse
The best way to end oligarchy is to adopt MONEYLESS SYSTEM.
This is only news to those who have kept their eyes tightly shut for the last two years. Bless you my country. You are in mortal danger
USA and one of their devil children by a firm named Monsanto is crating Soil Erosion which will lead to food shortage. Act now America to save your future.
This is why they were terrified of Donald Trump.
They were terrified he was going to expose them.
Vile,evil people.
well, the oligarchy is over because their wealth came from our faith in the currency they've been using. what's been circulating is private mint e.g., rounds and fiat. they don't have any money. nobody has to honor fiat anymore. the elites defacto wealth is not transferable and it has been snatched from under their feet.
You have to question the intelligence of We the PERSONS (sometimes called the "voter"). PERSONS have voted over and over and bend over since Wurshington and what have they gotten! Pert near 50 Mr Presidents later not one has ever done anything, good and lasting for We the PERSONS. All Mr Presidents have done was create and maintain the treadmill of debt for the creditors (Vatican). Like the other International Terrorist group, the "Christians"! The "Christians" actually believe JeZEUS abolished the constitution written in Heaven.
High Class Slavery… Making one do something for the master's benefit that normally he or she would not do…
Close your eyes and listen to Mike Rowes grandfather….
A tiny bit of freedom left, after a century+ of increasing Leftist and Right statism, rationalizes the absurd claim that selfish oligarchs rule the US. Note very clearly the evasion of the intellectual dominance of Leftism in our schools, the same Leftism that guides selfish oligarchs who own social media platforms to ban non-Leftist ideas. Only if the US was a dirt-poor egalitarian culture would Leftists claim victory.
I thought it was the Fed! 💡
Yes, so true.
And everyone is anxious to belong to this
Selfish Oligarchy, this Ruling Elite with its
Pretend Democracy and the Free Market claim
as quickly and completely as possible …
That is the trick of it, once invented and
established, it will continue to exist
as a perpetual motion machine indefinitely
feeding itself …
The bureaucracy, "deep state", Trump found out the hard way about them when they sent him packing in 2020! "Democracy"??? Yeah right!😄
I just don’t understand how so many people have been convinced that this nation, the USA is some kind of “democracy”. The Founders and the Father Of Our Constitution Were Absolutely Aware That “democracy” doesn’t work and this is why they formed and gave us a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC WITH A REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT. Those who’ve been working to Corrupt this have been working at this since day 2 and will only stop when they stop breathing. Anyone who utters the Blasphemy “our democracy” when speaking about the USA is not only fully and purposely Ignorant, they are also The Enemy of this Nation.
The Narcissism of America…
Why is narcissism looked down on? It's looked at as a metal disease. Yet, big business and this government is ran by it.
What this teaches me is that my downfall is due to I believe every person is treated and created equally.
This furthermore proves the ideology of. a god (non existent pervert entity in the sky) mentally is actually a mental disease.
Why do people want power? Why do they feel like they have to play in this king/queen mentality?
What is wrong with everyone being equal?
Only because he is a "Lewis" was he allowed to say the partial truth and criticize the false elite that has trapped the West with the fiat currency printing press. It's the deadlock situation you find before revolution where those in power have total control and will not give it up.
what he said about Reagan is what Grover Norquist said about what conservatives want in a president.
just someone who could sign their name
I've been saying that people in the US need to be honest about what they want.
I think you'd find that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (property) for all is not agreed on.
A authoritarian plutocracy
it's always been this way since 1776.
and the majority of citizens want it that way.
Slaves we are and slaves we shall stay until Jesus Christ returns.