47
See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Friedrich Engels 66–67 ■
Richard Sennett 84–87 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Thorstein Veblen 214–19
critique of the effects of modernity,
pointing out what he saw as the
complacency among his fellow
intellectuals that had allowed the
oppression of “mass society.”
Wright Mills’ maverick stance
belied the firm foundations on
which it was based. He had been
a brilliant and uncompromising
student of sociology, and especially
admired the work of Max Weber,
whose idea of rationalization
inspired the central theme of his
own social thinking.
Dehumanized society
For Weber, modern society was
replacing traditional customs
and values with rational decision-
making in a dehumanizing process
that affected not only the culture
but also the structure of society.
He noted that rational social
organization is not necessarily
based on reason, or for the welfare
of all. Weber also provided Wright
Mills with a more sophisticated
notion of class than the simple
economic model proposed by Marx,
introducing the elements of status
and power as well as wealth.
With a thorough understanding
of Weber’s theories, and the belief
that they were more radical than
had been thought previously,
Wright Mills set about applying
them to his own analysis of the
effects of rationalization in mid-
20th century Western society.
He focused his attention first
on the working class in the US,
criticizing organized labor for
collaborating with capitalists and
thus allowing them to continue
to oppress the workforce. But
his was not a Marxist attack on
capitalism; he felt Marxism failed
to address the social and cultural
issues associated with the
dominance of commercial industry.
Next, he examined the most
obvious product of rationalization:
the bureaucratic middle classes.
He maintained that by the mid-
20th century the US middle classes,
alienated from the processes ofproduction, had become divorced
from traditional values, such
as pride in craftsmanship, and
dehumanized by ever-increasing
rationalization. In his view, they
were now “cheerful robots”—
finding pleasure in material things,
but intellectually, politically, and
socially apathetic—without any
control over their circumstances.
The failure of the working class,
and the inability of the middle
class, to take control allowed ❯❯FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY
Social scientists have a moral duty to use
their knowledge to reveal individual–social
connections objectively.A “sociological imagination”
can grasp this link and help
transform individual lives by
tackling social problems.But ordinary people do not link
their troubles with the issues
of society as a whole.Many personal troubles must be
understood in terms of public issues.Let every man be his own
methodologist, let every man
be his own theorist.
Charles Wright Mills