“Who, after all, runs America? No one runs it altogether, but in so far as any group does, the power elite.”
C. Wright Mills (1959). The Sociological Imagination, Oxford University Press. p. 31.
Mills’ The Power Elite thesis (1956) has sustain the length of time to the present. I have said it before. We have never really escaped the paradigms of thought laid out in the mid-century: from hard to soft fascism, to inflationary capitalism, from science fiction totalitarianism, to insane consumerism.
Mass society has never learnt from its mistakes. In The Washington Post today (September 19, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT), journalists Rachel Lerman, Julie Zauzmer Weil, Emma Kumer and Clara Ence Morse, tell us “how rich each candidate is compared with the average American.” The Cognition history of American politics has played out in Mills’ more perceptive “elites versus anti-elites” narratives. The irony is that Mills and his academic associates, the historians Richard Hofstadter, Frank Freidel, and Ken Stampp, were seen to form both a Conflict historiographic school of thought, and it is rival, a Consensus historiographic school of thought. From the standpoint of the early 21st century, it is nonsense; the stupidity of mid-century polemics, as we today the stupidity of polemics. Trying to box the mid-century historians was, and is, stupidity. At the time, Hofstadter complained he disliked the term ‘consensus historian’ several times, and criticized Daniel Joseph Boorstin for overusing the consensus and ignoring the essential conflicts in history (Rushdy 1999: 129; Kraus and Joyce 1990).
Mills (Buch 2022d). was strongly influenced by pragmatism, specifically the works of George Herbert Mead, John Dewey, Charles Sanders Peirce, and William James, and added to pragmatic-paradigmatic thinking was Karl Marx and Thorstein Veblen, Max Weber and Karl Mannheim, with a dose of Neo-Freudianism. It is stupidity to box-in thinkers.
The work of these American historians and sociologists are very distinct from modern American conspiracy theory. Mills’ The Power Elite (1956) is clearly based on what he claimed as “The Sociological Imagination“ (1959). It was a positive move because the thinking challenged a structural functionalist approach to sociology, as it opens new positions for the individual to inhabit with regard to the larger social structure. The crossover conflict-consensus dialogue debunks — if any person bothers to read and think — the stupidity of the beloved false ‘dismissals’ of the hard materialists; those who are only interested in profiting themselves, and “screw” everyone else.
Narratives of elites versus anti-elites tie together the global themes of thinking from circa 1950 to the present: egalitarianism, anti-intellectualism (against powerful institutions perceived to be controlled by elites), populism, and the political theory of pluralism (Buch 2022e). Although these are global themes the way of thinking creeps into decision-making at the local level (Buch 2023a, d, h, i, k, l). It has been a substantive argument (Buch 2022a, b; 2023c, f; 2024b) of the author-writer-scholar in the last seven and half years, and five days, since my lover-lifepartner-wife passed on the 17 December 2016. But who listens? It is a cutting-edge theory of historiography (Buch 2022c; 2023b, e; 2024a). But who listens? The work addresses contemporary and global educationalist theories (Buch 2023g, j).
In conclusion is what I have already stated, but who listens?
The American national mythology, as we review Richard Hofstadter (1955, re-issued 1988; 1963;1965; rev. edition, 2008), Susan Jacoby (2008), and Russell Jacoby (1987; 1999; 2005; 2011; 2020), can be seen as another answer, and, in fact, the all-encompassing problem Ideal. Here the problem is how the ideal is misunderstood, unhistorical. A better historical understanding shows that history is not myth; and persons are making decisions to be wilful ignorance. There is another part of the problem Ideal. In being misunderstood, the myth is not practiced. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are not practicing the American national mythology as in its historical intentionality. The American state militias were never meant to become a permanent military force to defend state rights; least of all its violent rhetoric and its violent historical incidents.
REFERENCES AND BACKGROUND RESEARCH
I acknowledge the use of phrases from Wikipedia entries cited (hyperlinked). I annual donate to Wikimedia.
Barrow, C. W. (2007). Plain Marxists, Sophisticated Marxists, and C. Wright Mills’ “The Power Elite.” Science & Society, 71(4), 400–430. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40404441
Bell, Daniel (1960). The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in The Fifties, New York, The Free Press.
Bell, D. (1958). The Power Elite-Reconsidered. American Journal of Sociology, 64(3), 238–250. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2773191
Bourke, Paul (1976) Politics and ideas: The work of Richard Hofstadter, Historical Studies, 17:67, 210-218, DOI: 10.1080/10314617608595548
Brown, David S. (2006). Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography, University of Chicago Press.
Buch, Neville (2022a). How are we learning? The Intellectual Failure of History and Heritage in Australian Capital Cities, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/how-are-we-learning-the-intellectual-failure-of-history-and-heritage-in-australian-capital-cities/
Buch, Neville (2022b). Regarding Our Education Systems Needing Thinking in Contemporaneous Compatibilist Epistemology, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/regarding-our-education-systems-needing-thinking-in-contemporaneous-compatibilist-epistemology/
Buch, Neville (2022c). Explaining Neville’s Historiography (Dr Neville Buch ABN 86703686642), Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/explaining-nevilles-historiography-dr-neville-buch-abn-86703686642/
Buch, Neville (2022d). C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite, the Old-New Left, and Queensland lived Ideologies, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, September 6, 2022.
Buch, Neville (2022e). The United States Tour: American Educationalist Models in an Australian State 1942-2022, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642),
The United States Tour: American Educationalist Models in an Australian State 1942-2022
Buch, Neville (2023a), with Kath Feeney, Afternoons, ABC Local (ABC Brisbane), 25 July 2023, 9.30 minutes. On naming Brisbane.
Buch, Neville (2023b). Research Note: Anglo-American Major Belief-Doubt Systems, Dr Neville Buch Academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/104984588/Research_Note_Anglo_American_Major_Belief_Doubt_Systems
Buch, Neville (2023c). Persons, Ideology, and Cognitive Mapping, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/persons-ideology-and-cognitive-mapping/
Buch, Neville (2023d). 2023-04-05 Letter to Mayor. Re. Questions on 2023-2025 Commemorations, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/2023-04-05-letter-to-mayor-re-questions-on-2023-2025-commemorations/
Buch, Neville (2023e). Dr Neville Buch’s Philosophy and History, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/dr-neville-buchs-philosophy-and-history/
Buch, Neville (2023f). Stupidity of the Market Economy in Higher Education, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/stupidity-of-the-market-economy-in-higher-education/
Buch, Neville (2023g). Communication, Critical Thinking, Education, and Research: A Society Captured in the ‘PR’ Outlook, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/communication-critical-thinking-education-and-research-a-society-captured-in-the-pr-outlook/
Buch, Neville (2023h). Letter to the Queensland Government and Heritage Council, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/letter-to-the-queensland-government-and-heritage-council/
Buch, Neville (2023i). SBSF Submission as Feedback on Kurilpa Sustainable Growth Precinct, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/sbsf-submission-as-feedback-on-kurilpa-sustainable-growth-precinct/
Buch, Neville (2023j). Part Three: Urban Rebellion and Community Education, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/part-three-urban-rebellion-and-community-education/
Buch, Neville (2023k). The Southern Brisbane Suburban Forum Inc.’s Briefing-Submission on the State Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan 2023 Update (SEQRP), Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/the-southern-brisbane-suburban-forum-inc-s-briefing-submission-on-the-state-governments-south-east-queensland-regional-plan-2023-update-seqrp/
Buch, Neville (2023l). Conversation out in the community of the Southern Brisbane region, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/conversation-out-in-the-community-of-the-southern-brisbane-region/
Buch, Neville (2024a). Buckley in Australia: Considering Local Social Discourses among the Australian States, (1938-1987), 4 June 2024, Public Conservative Workshop international forum. University of Manchester.
Buch, Neville (2024b). Populist Nationalism Will Not Deliver; We have been Here Before, many times…, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, July 20, 2024.
Buccola, Nicholas (2019). The Fire is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America, Princeton University Press.
Clark, Manning (1963; fourth revised 2006). A Short History of Australia, Penguin-Random House.
Domhoff, G. W. (2007). C. Wright Mills, Floyd Hunter, And 50 Years Of Power Structure Research. Michigan Sociological Review, 21, 1–54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40969126
Domhoff, G. W. (2012). An Invitation to a Four-Network Theory of Power: A New Viewpoint Compatible with Elite Theory. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, 37(1 (139)), 23–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41756448
Geary, D. (2008). “Becoming International Again”: C. Wright Mills and the Emergence of a Global New Left, 1956-1962. The Journal of American History, 95(3), 710–736. https://doi.org/10.2307/27694377
Ghiloni, B. W., & Domhoff, G. W. (1984). Power structure research in America and the promise of democracy. Revue Française d’études Américaines, 21/22, 335–341. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20873198
Gillam, R. (1975). C. Wright Mills and the Politics of Truth: The Power Elite Revisited. American Quarterly, 27(4), 461–479. https://doi.org/10.2307/2712332
Higley, J., & Pakulski, J. (2012). Elite Theory versus Marxism: The Twentieth Century’s Verdict [2000]. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, 37(1 (139)), 320–332. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41756463
Hofstadter, Richard (1955, re-issued 1988). The Age of Reform: From Bryan to f.d.r., New York: Random House USA Inc.
Hofstadter, Richard (1963). Anti-intellectualism in American Life, New York: Random House USA Inc.
Hofstadter, Richard (1965; rev. edition, 2008) The Paranoid Style in American Politics, and Other Essays, New York: Random House USA Inc.
Horne, Donald (1964). The Lucky Country: Australia in the Sixties, Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin.
Horne, Donald (1967). The Education of Young Donald, Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin.
Horne, Donald (1976). Death of The Lucky Country, Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin.
Horowitz, I. L. (2012). C. Wright Mills, 1916—1962: Bright Lights and Dark Shadows. Contemporary Sociology, 41(4), 413–422. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23212075
Jacoby, Susan (2008). The Age of American Unreason in a Culture of Lies, Vintage Books.
Jacoby, Russell (1987). The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe, Basic Books, New York, NY.
Jacoby, Russell (1999). The End of Utopia. Politics and Culture in an Age of Apathy, Basic Books, New York, NY.
Jacoby, Russell (2005). Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age, Columbia University Press.
Jacoby, Russell (2011). Bloodlust: On the Roots of Violence from Cain and Abel to the Present, Free Press, New York, NY.
Jacoby, Russell (2020). On Diversity: The Eclipse of the Individual in a Global Era, Seven Stories Press, New York, NY.
Khan, S. R. (2012). The Sociology of Elites. Annual Review of Sociology, 38, 361–377. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23254600
Kraus, Michael; Joyce, Davis D. (January 1, 1990). The Writing of American History. University of Oklahoma Press.
Lake, Marilyn (2019). Progressive New World: How Settler Colonialism and Transpacific Exchange Shaped American Reform, Harvard University Press.
Lindsay, D. M. (2008). Evangelicals in the Power Elite: Elite Cohesion Advancing a Movement. American Sociological Review, 73(1), 60–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25472514
Pakulski, J. (2012). The Weberian Foundations of Modern Elite Theory and Democratic Elitism. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, 37(1 (139)), 38–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41756449
Rushdy, Ashraf H. A. (November 4, 1999). Neo-slave Narratives: Studies in the Social Logic of a Literary Form. Oxford University Press.
Mills, C. Wright 1942 (1965). “The Nazi behemoth dissected.” Partisan Review (September-October). Reprinted in Irving L. Horowitz (ed.),
Mills, C. Wright. (1965). The Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mills, C. Wright, and Hans H. Gerth, 1942 (reprinted 1965). “A Marx for managers.” Ethics 52 (January). Reprinted in Irving L. Horowitz (ed.), C. Wright Mills. New York: Ballantine: 53-76.
Moskos, C. C. (1974). The Concept of the Military-Industrial Complex: Radical Critique or Liberal Bogey? Social Problems, 21(4), 498–512. https://doi.org/10.2307/799988
Niebuhr, Reinhold (1932). Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Roscigno, V. J. (1992). Conservative and Critical Approaches to The Power Structure Debate: An Assessment and Critique of Empirical Findings. Journal of Political & Military Sociology, 20(1), 63–81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45293921
Sigler, J. A. (1966). The Political Philosophy of C. Wright Mills. Science & Society, 30(1), 32–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40401173
Spinrad, W. (1966). The Socio-Political Orientations of C. Wright Mills: An Evaluation. The British Journal of Sociology, 17(1), 46–59. https://doi.org/10.2307/588432
Tawney, R. H. (1920). The Acquisitive Society, London: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Tenenbaum, S., & Ross, R. J. S. (2006). Who Rules America? Teaching Sociology, 34(4), 389–397. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20058511
Thio, A. (1973). Class Bias in the Sociology of Deviance. The American Sociologist, 8(1), 1–12. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27702067
Trump, Mary L. (2020). Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, New York: Simon & Schuster.
Wesołowski, Włodzimierz. “Ruling Class and Power Elite.” The Polish Sociological Bulletin, no. 11 (1965): 22–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44815209.
Wolf, Susan. ‘One Thought Too Many’: Love, Morality, and the Ordering of Commitment’ in Ulrike Heuer and Gerald Lang (ed. 2012), Luck, Value, and Commitment: Themes From the Ethics of Bernard Williams, Oxford University Press.
Neville Buch
Latest posts by Neville Buch (see all)
- Dr Bandy Lee. Subtle Influence of Trumpism on Scholarly Organisations - September 30, 2024
- A Letter to Simon: Towards a Conversation Between an Australian Monarchist and an Australian Republican - September 29, 2024
- Rudolf Steiner’s Goethe: The Better Part of Thinking for the 21st Century - September 26, 2024