The Revolt Against Social Equality

...The imperative claim that "all men are created equal" has seemingly provided premise and goal for efforts to extend the suffrage, emancipate the Negro, develop a system of mass education, and promote equal economic opportunity...

...On the other hand, they reflect a projection backward of the hopelessness and despair with which many intellectuals regard the contemporary American scene...

...In this view (which through the writings of Beard, Parrington, and J. Allen Smith has had a marked effect on American historical interpretation) the common man and the the political movements he originated or supported were basically characterized by a faith in such values as tolerance, liberty, and equality...

...Otto Kirchhelmer is Professor of Political Science, Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research...

...The ambiguities and inhibitions exist, however, and they have become more pronounced in the last twenty years...

...whose essay on television appears in the Rosenberg-White "Mass Culture," has written for DISSENT previously...

...Finally, there have been some recent books which suggest that the wealthy, educated, and formerly suspected "interests" are more civil libertarian, more internationalist, and less prejudiced than the poorer, less educated masses...

...Despite the role of the New Deal as a curb on the depression and the beneficiary of all economic groups in the population, there is no general disposition to identify the Democratic Party with prosperity and economic well being...

...In America as an acquisitive society, the envy of the rich has been, at least in part, an envy of the select status and prestige of the rich, apart from envy of their material possessions...

...From the earliest days of the Republic, the business ethic has been the dominant ethic...

...It is not merely that full employment and higher wages create demand for higher-priced goods, although these are important factors in the transformation...

...The failures of radicalism in twentieth century America have been particularly striking, whether in the form of rejection of radicalism at the polls even in periods of economic crisis, or rejection in the trade union movement...

...And in seeking wealth for himself, the American has sought the status and prestige that go with wealth...

...the automobile "in the prestige price class" (Chrysler Imperial) . In essence, the contemporary culture defines the non-conformist as the man who can afford to be different, and in a sense that definition of non-conformity has come to express the entire meaning of popular non-conformity in the Nineteen Fifties...

...and other periodicals...

...II Meanwhile, the relative prosperity of the last decade has made possible a substantial measure of economic equality...

...The egalitarian theme, so viewed, permeates Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy, the abolition of slavery, the rise of trade unionism, and modern reformist politics...

...The movement away from equality is represented in certain types of conspicuous consumption, anti-civil rights sentiment, and political behavior...

...Slum dwellers have moved in increasing numbers to the suburbs adjoining large cities...

...The Irish, Italian, and Polish descendants of the later immigrants have decreased the economic distance between themselves and the older established Americans...

...To be sure, few people vote for or against equality, but related issues have played a prominent role in recent campaigns...

...More recently, however, there have been a number of studies in history and sociology muckraking the so-called liberal tradition...

...My thesis is that the United States is moving simultaneously toward and away from social equality, and that the tension between the two movements is to a large degree responsible for the present social and political mood...

...The mood also reflects, in addition to disillusionment with Stalinism, the growing conviction that Soviet man does not behave much differently than his Americancounterpart, i.e., that he, too, is conformist, commodity-centered, and indifferent to values other than materialist values...

...Of course, there are millions of Americans whose economic position is still marginal, but it can hardly be denied that the majority of the population has made significant gains...

...Until fairly recently the American intellectual's view of the common man was essentially Jeffersonian...

...The revolt against social equality finds expression in a variety of ways...

...And, Norman Thomas—needs no introduction...

...The materialism, conservatism, and indifference of the common man, both past and present, has tended to undermine the liberal intellectual's traditional faith in popular, democratic reform and change...

...fatalism of many radicals and liberals alike—excepting those who have abandoned the old faith for the "new conservatism" or, in Mills' phrase, "the American Celebration...

...There is decorator snobbery, in the preference for "high-brow" as opposed to "low-brow" modern furniture, and in the taste for original art, however mediocre, over the popular prints of the Masters...

...I do not mean that there is any deficiency of wealthy individuals in the United States...

...Ultimately, if the economy is to continue to function at a high level (and leaving aside the relationship of the "expanding" economy to international developments) , everything must be sold to everyone...

...I will also argue that the latter movement has been partly responsible for the failure of radical politics in the United States, and the related demise in some intellectual circles of a radical and reforming spirit...

...In an important sense, however, a continuing general improvement of condition is an imperative of a viable capitalist system (as it is also an imperative of other viable systems) . Such a system is dependent upon rising levels of mass consumption which increasingly transform the so-called luxury goods into mass produced and consumed commodities...

...The discontent stems from the fact that in a society whose supreme value is individual success in terms of money, no one gains if everyone gains, because in that event no one iS left behind...

...Hence the "luxury market" must be steadily transformed into a mass market, through advertising, through the broadening of installment-buying plans and personal consumption loans, and, occasionally, through price reductions...

...ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, Democracy in America, 1835...

...It may be suggested, however, that there is widespread dissatisfaction with these gains, not because they have been too limited but because they have not been limited enough...

...Depressions, financial panics, recessions, and the prevalence of poverty amidst plenty, have never undermined the faith in America as the land of individual opportunity...

...There is gourmet snobbery, expressed in a quest for ever more exotic recipes and methods of cooking and serving food...

...In its most overt form it consists of coercive efforts to maintain a separation between economic and social equality...

...Robert E. Brown, Charles Beard and the Constitution (Princeton, 1956) . tant problems...

...He attributedthis to the fact that "Negroes drive Cadillacs," and that, therefore, the formerCadillac class of citizens is tending to buy the more exotic makes of foreign anddomestic cars...

...It is probable, in fact, that the current radical malaise owes much more to the failure of radicalism at home than the failure of radicalism abroad...

...At the same time, a number of sociologists have found that there is a considerable gap between normative democratic theory and concrete democratic practice, at least as reffected in voting behavior and public opinion formation...

...Thus Negroes and other minorities who can afford better housing are denied access to such housing in white neighborhoods through "restrictive covenants," despite the fact that such covenants are not enforceable by the courts...

...By and large, the rich have been more imitated than envied, and more envied than disliked...

...the "luxury market" is fairly easily and quickly supplied, and in such instances the market must be expanded if current output is to be maintained...

...Furthermore, in certain cases (e.g., automobiles, boats, household furnishings, sporting goods, etc...

...There is apparel snobbery, illustrated in The New York Times report of last Fall that there was greater demand for the more expensive types of clothing, including custom-tailored clothing, than for the cheaper ready-made varieties...

...These studies are both cause and consequence of the collapse of intellectual radicalism in our time...

...Similarly, the economic gains of certain minority groups are rarely reflected in their admission to the more costly, exclusive recreational facilities: hotels, restaurants, dining clubs, country clubs, college fraternities and sororities, etc...

...class...

...But a "hero class" has never developed in America (or perhaps anywhere else) , and successive rejections of the approach, by the farmers in the earlier period and the workers later on, have called into question the approach itself...

...David Kettler, who was a student of Franz Neumann, and teaches political science makes his first appearance in DISSENT...

...Henry Pachter, In addition to many articles, Is the author of "Paracelsus—Magic Into Science" .. . Richard Lowenthal, a German socialist now living in England, writes frequently for the London "Observer...

...For in large part the liberal and radical approach has been based on the assumption of a "hero class" which would act to implement the approach and provide it with a mass, or quasi-mass, base...

...The producers of such goods are both tempted and forced to increase their output, both as a way of making maximum use of capital investment (and re-investment) , and as a way of maximizing profits...

...The movement toward equality is expressed in rising living standards, and it has been significantly accelerated in our time by 'broad trends in the economy, the New Deal, World War II, and the current mixture of defense spending and welfare programming that constitutes the Warfare-Welfare State...

...Just as little remained of Progressivism in the Nineteen Twenties, so little remains of New Dealism in the Nineteen Fifties...

...The typical American, therefore, has never regarded the possession of wealth as inherently immoral, and even the poorest of Americans have never sought to reduce the wealthy to their own economic and social position...

...Yet all this may be admitted with reference to the past and present, and it may even be assumed, with Norman Thomas and some of the "new conservatives," that socialism has become respectable, and perhaps even Republican...

...Among our contributors...

...There appears to be an increasing suspicion in intellectual circles that Socialist Man everywhere in the world is essentially Economic Man in a slightly different guise...

...Commentary...

...The claims of Negroes and others for equal housing, education, and recreational facilities have been directed mainly at the working class...

...Thus far, the white working class has, borne the brunt of egalitarian trends in racial and ethnic relations...

...There are still the consequences of the revolt against social equality which, unless tempered or reduced, can prove fatal to the value of conservatives and radicals alike...

...There is the "luxury cruise," the "red carpet" airline service, the "exclusive" island resort or remote vacation spot, the sofa trimmed with mink (in a recent New York Times advertisement) , the $2,500 collection of pipes...

...One's allegedly no-account neighbors in the slum become one's apparently equal neighbors in the suburb, reducing the sense of individual achievement and mastery...

...Within the white population the revolt against social equality is expressed, in one fashion, through indulgence in ever more conspicuous and initially confined consumption tastes...

...It may at least be questioned whether it is not also recognized, at least intuitively, as the party of inequality...

...Nor has conventional liberalism proved much more viable or enduring...

...I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men, and where a profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of Property...

...The typical liberal intellectual is apt to experience a shocked betrayal with every report that the ordinary American is neither self-less nor idealistic...

...Some part of the satisfaction of Cadillac ownership is denied, when it is observed that Negroes are driving Cadillacs.* The anticipated pleasure in the "night out" evaporates rapidly when the favored restaurant no longer appears to cater to a "select" clientele...

...But aside from the question of cost, such non-conformity is less an expression of individuality than a rejection at all income levels of social parity with peer income groups...

...in various parts of the country such social segregation applies to Negroes, Jews, Catholics, Orientals, Mexicans, Italians, Slays, and Puerto Ricans...

...If, on the other hand, social equality is ultimately to be accepted, it must be given more ideological and institutional support than it now receives...

...So far the "new history" has focused on Populism and Progressivism, but we may expect the approach to be carried back eventually to Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy.* It will then be discovered that there were significant illiberal and anti-democratic elements in these social movements and in their political expressions...

...American public opinion, according to various studies, is ignorant, irresponsible, and easily manipulated...

...It is possible, however, that the relative tolerance of the middle class is a function, in part, of its relative immunity so far from the consequences of demands for social equality...

...In this fashion, the luxury goods of fifty years ago became the mass necessities of our time...

...The popular spirit, from Jefferson to Franklin D. Roosevelt, was regarded as a liberal, humanist spirit, and the main political tradition of America was therefore thought to be—and in some circles still is thought to be—a liberal tradition...

...Richard Wright Is of course, the well-known novelist...

...There is evidence from public opinion polls and attitude studies that racial and ethnic tolerance increases with education and income, i.e., evidence that the middle class is more tolerant than the working • Not long ago, for example, a Westchester auto salesman informed me that automobile dealers in Westchester were having difficulty selling Cadillacs...

...Arnold Rogow, a sociologist, has written for the scholarly journals...

...They derive from the other themes which make up the ideological and institutional context: individualism and competition, the profit motive, and the importance in America of material success...

...Thus the white collar group, which was significantly attracted to Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, is hostile to one of the main beneficiaries of egalitarian politics, the trade union movement...

...Put another way, he has tended to think in terms of advancement not as part of an advancing group or class, but of individual advancement relative to the condition of the mass of citizens...

...Translated into personal aspiration, these themes have generated much less a desire for equality than a desire for economic gain, advancement, and higher social status and position...

...The historians have discovered, or are rapidly discovering, that the various common man movements of the past were heavily influenced by narrow self-interest, status considerations, nativism, isolation, anti-Semitism, and anti-Negro feeling...

...The Soviet perversion of socialism and the puppet role of the American Communist Party have been important in framing the contemporary intellectual mood,* but less important, perhaps, than the long-standing failure of all types of radicalism to attract significant support in the United States...

...Paralleling these changes have been shifts in the class and ethnic composition of college students, business and the professions...

...According to theory citizens in a democracy vote on issues, but issues, it has been found, have relatively little to do with voting.Citizens are also supposed to seek information and enlightenment with respect to the problems of the day, but typically they do not seek to become informed, and most of them cannot identify the impor * The most recent example of the "new history," in the form of an attack on Beard's Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, attempts to showthat there were no major ideological differences between the Founding Fathers and the yeoman farmers in 1787, that in a word, everyone at that time was interestedin protecting property rights...

...But in essence, they have been imitated and envied not merely because they were rich, but because they were richer than...

...On the one hand, they suggest that the liberal and radical approach has always lacked a popular base, that, in essence, the liberal tradition has been a confined minority, perhaps elitist, tradition...

...In Montgomery, Alabama, for example, the principal users of bus transportation are lower income white people...

...I refer to the impact of the anti-equality revolt and certain related phenomena upon intellectuals...

...On the other hand, the Republican Party is widely regarded as the party of aspiration...

...It is probable that the identification of part of the Democratic Party with civil rights had a good deal to do with the partial swing of white Americans North and South toward the Republicans (this is not to deny that many Negroes now identify the Republican Party with civil rights) . In both 1952 and 1956, a favorable view of New Deal economic policies was correlated with Democratic voting, and a negative attitude with Republican...

...As do Irving Louis Horowitz, who follows East European intellectual developments closely, and Edward Speyer, a scientist...

...Social equality, whatever form the economy takes in the future, must ultimately be accepted or rejected, but any rejection will almost certainly require an enforced, coercive stratification...

...Viewed superficially, the movement toward social equality has deep roots in the ideological and institutional past...

...The living standards of American workers are closer to those of the middle class, and the living standards of Negroes closer to those of the white population, that was the case before World War II...

...Henri Rabasseire...

...Ben Seligman is an economist whose work has appeared frequently In DISSENT and other magazines...

...The real test of middle class tolerance will come when Negroes and other racial and ethnic minorities are financially in a position to demand equality with the white middle class in respect to housing, education, and recreation...

...He added that the dealers in these cars make it a rule not to sell to Negroes...

...III The revolt against social equality has been, in political terms, a revolt against the egalitarian politics of the New Deal...

...Without that support, each successive achievement in reducing economic inequality (whether deliberate or not) will aggravate the revolt against social equality, and, in the end, political democracy itself...

...The American Creed, according to Gunnar Myrdal, not merely espouses equality, but has lodged it firmly in the national conscience to such an extent, for example, that discriminatory treatment of Negroes gives rise to profound guilt feelings (which are assuaged by further ill-treatment) . Interpreted in this fashion, the movement toward social equality would appear to be unambiguous, uninhibited, almost deterministic...

...The betrayal to which the liberal intellectual responds, moreover, has not been immediate or sudden, but cumulative...

...Thus culture and politics both express a revolt against social equality, and at another level the consequences of such a revolt in historical perspective have been no less important...

...Hence the defeatism, pessimism, and...