SOCY 226 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Black Nationalism, New Social Movements, The Foundations
14 Jan 2016
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Document Summary
The rise of the middle-class in 1950s america became a focus of critique in literature and critical sociology. The mythology of the united states included a belief that it was classless, that wealth could be achieved by anyone through hard work, and that constant economic growth was inherently beneficial. Mass consumption in the 1950s and 1960s prompted a return to ideas expressed in the late 19th century by thorstein veblen in his theory of conspicuous consumption". Mills" work on the white-collar mass engaged with the emerging ideology of middle-class work and leisure: The white-collar worker has little freedom or capacity to act, struggling to achieve goals that they have little control over. As a result of mass consumption, people"s lives must be constantly renewed in trivial ways: personalities become commodities, disguised by commercial masks. Salesmanship becomes a general ethic: learning to pretend to be interested in others, in order to manipulate them.
