children. Successful Americans do not usually lay their success at their
parents’ doorstep, however. They usually explain their accomplishments as
owing to their own individual characteristics, so they see American society as
meritocratic. They achieved their own success; other people must be getting
their just desserts. Believing that American society is open to individual input,
the educated well-to-do tend to agree with society’s decisions and feel they
had a hand in forming them. They identify more with our society and its
policies. We can use the term vested interest here, so long as we realize we
are referring to an ideological interest or need, a need to come to terms with
the privilege with which one has been blessed, not simple economic self-
interest. In this sense, educated successful people have a vested interest in
believing that the society that helped them be educated and successful is fair.
As a result, those in the upper third of our educational and income structure are
more likely to show allegiance to society, while those in the lower third are
more likely to be critical of it.
The other process causing educated adults to be more likely to support the
Vietnam War can be summarized under the rubric socialization. Sociologists
have long agreed that schools are important socializing agents in our society.
Socializing in this context does not mean hobnobbing around a punch bowl but
refers to the process of learning and internalizing the basic social rules—
language, norms, etiquette—necessary for an individual to function in society.
Socialization is not primarily cognitive. We are not persuaded rationally not to
pee in the living room; we are required not to. We then internalize and obey
this rule even when no authority figure lurks to enforce it. Teachers may try to
convince themselves that education’s main function is to promote inquiry, not
iconography, but in fact the socialization function of schooling remains
dominant at least through high school and hardly disappears in college.
Education as socialization tells people what to think and how to act and
requires them to conform. Education as socialization influences students
simply to accept the rightness of our society. American history textbooks
overtly tell us to be proud of America. The more schooling, the more
socialization, and the more likely the individual will conclude that America is
good.
Both the allegiance and socialization processes cause the educated to
believe that what America does is right. Public opinion polls show the
nonthinking results. In late spring 1966, just before the United States began