The Immediate Cause Of World War Iii

A Society That Is In Its Higher Circles And Middle Levels Widely Believed To Be A Network Of Smart Rackets Does Not Produce Men With An Inner Moral Sense; A Society That Is Merely Expedient Does Not Produce Men Of Conscience. A Society That Narrows The Meaning Of 'success' To The Big Money And In Its Terms Condemns Failure As The Chief Vice, Raising Money To The Plane Of Absolute Value, Will Produce The Sharp Operator And The Shady Deal. Blessed Are The Cynical, For Only They Have What It Takes To Succeed.

By The Power Elite, We Refer To Those Political, Economic, And Military Circles Which As An Intricate Set Of Overlapping Cliques Share Decisions Having At Least National Consequences. In So Far As National Events Are Decided, The Power Elite Are Those Who Decide Them.

Seldom Aware Of The Intricate Connection Between The Patterns Of Their Own Lives And The Course Of World History, Ordinary People Do Not Usually Know What This Connection Means For The Kind Of People They Are Becoming And For The Kind Of History-making In Which They Might Take Part.

For We Cannot Adequately Understand 'man' As An Isolated Biological Creature, As A Bundle Of Reflexes Or A Set Of Instincts, As An 'intelligible Field' Or A System In And Of Itself. Whatever Else He May Be, Man Is A Social And An Historical Actor Who Must Be Understood, If At All, In Close And Intricate Interplay With Social And Historical Structures

My Plans Have Always Exceeded My Capacities And Energies