Who Are "The Elite"?
Details
At a time when the phrase “We are the 99%” has gained popularity, the idea that somehow an elite – the 1% – has taken more than its fair share by stealth has been transformed into a rallying cry for protesters across the United States and elsewhere. There is nothing new in this analysis, however. C. Wright Mills classic, The Power Elite, was published in 1956 and brought to the attention of the American public the possibility that a relatively small set of interlocking elite groups had gained effective control of their country. It was a striking intervention and one that gained credibility, ironically, at the highest levels: in 1961 President Eisenhower used his Farewell Address to warn of a Military-Industrial Complex which threatened America: “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist”.
An incisive analysis of Mills’ contemporary society with a theme that still resonates, The Power Elite is the text for January’s Different Class.
Preliminary Reading
Reading: C Wright Mills (1956), The Power Elite.
Online source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13373306/The-Power-Elite