Crackpot Realists

Here's a nice appreciation of C. Wright Mills, from the libertarian economist Robert Higgs.

Comments

[Jeff Smith]

Back in the days when I was a student at the
University of Washington, which was around the
time that Robert Higgs was a professor there,
I took a class in political science that
included Mills’ book The Power Elite among
its readings. The prof was a big ACLU guy,
at the time when the ACLU was in the midst
of abandoning its focus on traditional civil
liberties and expanding it to include faux
liberties such as the right to comparable
worth.

In any case, I read Mills book (unlike, I am
sure, most of the other students) and found
it interesting. One day in class I asked the
prof how Mills had gotten his information about
all these people, when he clearly was not a
member of their social and economic circles.
The prof (who liked me because I was the only
one in class who gave evidence of paying
attention, even though we disagreed about
most everything – a behavior that puzzled me
at the time but is now crystal clear to me as
a college professor) agreed that this was a
good question, and said he’d think about it
and give me an answer in the next class
session.

True to his word, in the next session he
provided an answer: C. Wright Mills had learned
about the Power Elite from reading novels.
My reaction today is the same as it was at the
time, which is that I am so stunned I am not
sure just how to respond. But it is a great
story.

[Sol]

I note article cites (as its prime example?!?) the President Bush and the scanner story which has been more or less debunked as an urban legend:
http://www.snopes.com/history/american/bushscan.htm

(Frankly, I’ve always seen that story as an example of how out-of-touch most big time opinion makers are with small town America. Back when that story first broke, bar code scanners in supermarkets were big news to me, despite hundreds of trips to grocery stores. They didn’t hit small town Michigan for another couple of years.)