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Jaylen Rodgers

Sociology 400 Final Paper

Introduction

The two most prolific and accomplished sociologists I have studied so far in my undergraduate

career are Karl Marx and C. Wright Mills. Marx is by a hair my favorite of the two because of

his constructive yet unforgiving criticisms of capitalism, though Mills has provided some of the

most insightful sociological observations I have read in his work The Sociological Imagination.

One thing I am sure about is that both theorists clearly understand that the capitalist economy we

have in place in America is one that incubates inequality due to the massive wealth-distribution

gap and institutionalized oppression of minority groups. This inequality can be observed in

several different areas including but not limited to; race, class, education, sexual orientation, age,

and now even how a person looks or dresses thanks to consumerism!

My paper will draw on the sociological theories of both Karl Marx and C. Wright Mills

to illustrate how modern class issues are exacerbated by the widening gap between social classes.

The public issue I will focus on the most is the growing movement for decriminalization and

policy reform for drugs like cannabis and certain psychoactive substances, and also the benefits

such changes could have on our society. Current drug policies including the one here in North

Carolina are quite harsh and target minorities disproportionately compared to whites, and as a

result incarceration rates for people of color are the skyrocketing (Gamire 31). These oppressive

laws are kept in place by the elite despite new research and science that shows these prohibited

substances may actually be able to help people . I will also explore how the social structures and

predictions discussed by both theorists are clearly being validated today by our growing class

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gap and increasing racial tension, which both sociologists theorized would result from such

largely deregulated capitalist greed (Mills ‘79, Marx 09’).

C. Wright Mills

Mills was a visionary; a deeply pragmatic man who wanted to see things for how they

were in practice and reality rather than strictly theoretically. A revered professor of sociology at

Columbia University, Mills was highly interested in the relationship between greater society,

individual social power and experiences along with social inequalities. Mills work has many

influences from other famous sociologists including John Dewey, George Herbert Mead and of

course pieces of Marxist and Weberian theories, especially when discussing social structure and

who possesses real distributive power in capitalist societies. Mills published his highly

influential Power Elite in his 1956, and this moniker for the top 1% of our population is still

commonly used in many sociological circles today. He describes the American power elite as

being made up of top corporate, military, and economic leaders, who tend to share a common

world views and interests. Mills note that these people commonly possess a "class identity,"

recognizing themselves as separate and superior to the rest of society. He believed this elite

domination came about as the institutionalized outcome of great distributive power which comes

from the way capitalism is structured (Mills 1953). Mills found that this enormously wealthy

and connected elite population control the very industries and infrastructure that millions of

people depend on for wages, goods, and safety! They have the power to control the workforce by

firing and hiring employees as well as the choice of where they want to invest their precious

capital, which many entities including our federal government are desperately in need of . Mills

also saw our small and relatively weak central government entirely populated by elite politicians

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as another major obstacle to equality for the masses, since a situation is created where little to no

alternative policy theories exist to challenge the current one (Mills 1953). Mills realized that the

individual rights and freedoms promised to all Americans in the Bill of Rights did not add up to

distributive and effective power for the masses, and a society where critical thinking is

discouraged and everyone mindlessly pursues overpriced capitalist’ goods while struggling to

surviving on the pitiful wages this same group of connected individuals pay them. This outlook

for the future disturbed Mills greatly and he encouraged the students and young minds of the

New Left movement to use their sociological imaginations to solve social inequality and fight

back against elite dominance while also educating followers on who really controls the power in

our country. If this was not accomplished, Mills theorized society would become a mass of one

“dimensional” conformists with no individual identities, surviving off the crumbs of salary

thrown at them by the gluttonous Power Elite (Mills 1956). I wonder how Mills would have

reacted if he were alive in to see conditions in the present day.

Marx

The embodiment of everything capitalists and McCarthyists despise, Karl Marx is

credited as the founder of conflict theory whose philosophy teaches that social change and major

societal shifts are started by conflict and class struggle between opposing powers rather than

moral or religious reasons. Marx was the ultimate socialist/communist, and him and C. Wright

Mills were both able to recognize the power structure in capitalist countries favor individualism

and greed rather than sacrificing personal power for the greater good (Mills ‘79, Marx 09’ .

Economic domination of capital and resources is the ultimate goal of capitalism; not social

peace and stability.

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Karl Marx referred to workers and producers of the non wealthy lower class collectively

as the proletariat, who are dependent on a class of “owners of the means of production” he

termed the bourgeois for their survival (Marx 2009). C. Wright Mills work on the Power Elite

undoubtedly drew some amount of influence from ideas Marx expressed in his magnum opus,

Das Kapital. The modern bourgeois class started to form along with the industrial revolution, as

the development of groundbreaking technology like the automobile, railroads, and electricity

changed the way of life for many Americans (Shapiro). The development of these new

industries coincided with large numbers of people relocating to urban cities for a better way of

life, and eventually the factories and mass production lines that revolutionized labor in 20th

century came to life. Businessmen like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller

gained enormous amounts wealth and fame from their work in these industries as the public

(along with government) became increasingly dependent on the services their corporations

provided. Thus an elite class with unparalleled influence was cemented, and the vast

commercial empires these men created are still active and strong profitable today. As of today,

the elite top 5% of our population control 95% of the wealth and resources, and the federal

government isn’t even part of a large chunk of that. Indeed, this capitalist system of “free trade”

and federal deregulation has allowed our government and many of our lawmakers to become

dependent on the funding of elite executives of multinational corporations, whose yearly revenue

is sometimes more than the GDP of small countries.

Eventually, the power that comes with owning valuable capital and resources allowed

these corporate machines an unprecedented level of influence that ultimately surpassed our

federal government’s long ago. Sociologists of today automatically recognize the threat to social

order this situation presents as the “state” is the only authority which should be allowed to use

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violence and weaponry against people legitimately, and any outside influence on this power is

both immoral and illegitimate (Mills 1956). Marx and Mills were also aware of the dangers of

private interests in the “free and open market,” and both men predicted that individuals with

enormous amounts of capital would eventually start to exercise illegal influence over the public

(Mills ‘79, Marx 09’ . As our government began to rely on corporate services and financial

assistance, an unequal structure began to embed itself in our culture. American blue collar

workers are slowly became alienated from the fruits of their labor due to a widespread lack of

employee organization primarily caused by the elite discouraging and lobbying against unions.

Also, increasing outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries for cheaper labor has been

horrible for our huge middle class, but fantastic for the small number of elite businessmen who

will no doubt end up with huge pockets at the expense of equality in our country.

Mills and Marx agree that capitalist values that emphasize wealth accumulation over

morality have allowed some private individuals and corporations to become so powerful the state

cannot effectively regulate them, and sometimes the federal government even has to depend on

them for funding! From my reading of selections from their respective writings Das Kapital and

The Power Elite, I noticed Marx and Mills share a similar belief that the political interests of the

non-wealthy majority cannot be represented effectively in the presence of this illegitimate power.

The poor working class along with minorities not yet completely healed from slavery are

disproportionately punished and incarcerated by predatory laws targeted at them to maintain elite

dominance

The Oppressed

People of color are shown to be disproportionately arrested for minor offenses compared

to whites, and many areas would care not to lose the revenue made from court fees and sentence

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deferral programs pushed on these groups. A 2013 study conducted by the American Civil

Liberties Union showed that while African American’s make up 22% of the population here in

North Carolina, they accounted for 50% of marijuana related arrests despite the fact that whites

and blacks use cannabis at similar rates (ACLU 2013). These prisoners are predominantly lower

class minorities who all too often resort to selling marijuana and other narcotics to make a living.

The charges that got them there will follow them the rest of their lives and will severely decrease

any chance of economic advancement in the outside world, as failing background checks will

limit their chances of finding a job that pays enough to support them and their families in tough

economic times. This is why many drug offenders often go back to selling narcotics, as it is the

only way they can find to make a comfortable living.

Increasing competition for the shrinking number of capitalists leftovers by large

populations allows capitalists employers and executives to implement things like drug testing

and increasingly unforgiving background checks as ways to weed out (get it?) undesirables from

their work force . Drug possession, misconduct and other lower level misdemeanors are

frequently committed by all races and social classes, but people in the middle or bottom of the

social food chain with little to no resources are still harshly and unfairly punished compared to

those at the top. A young, non-wealthy person such as myself who gets a drug possession

charge on their record will certainly have a harder time finding a job, renting out an apartment,

getting a loan, or anything else that subjects them to background checks.

In the Sociological Imagination. C. Wright Mills wrote that these attempts at “moral

regulations” are rarely effective in determining a person’s character in most cases and leads one

to focus on an “individual commitment to a moral order without examining the nature of that

order” I interpret this as meaning that industry standards such as “drug free workplace” and

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“employee retail competence tests” advocated for by the power elite are really not effective in

guaranteeing a safe and competent workplace, and instead they serve the purpose of reinforcing

inequality by screening out otherwise good candidates for a job. Another source of inequality

discussed by Mills and Marx is the distrust and ill sentiment in minority communities toward the

police. Every police force is supposed to protect every citizen equally under the law, yet we

have seen officers continually over-police minority communities to rack up easy petty drug and

misdemeanor crimes through illegal searches and general harassment (Garmire). “According to

the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their

lifetime” (BJS) way more than any other ethnic group in our country. Concurrently, these same

policemen that harassas and profile black citizens constantly under police the same communities

when they genuinely need them, for example responding slowly when somebody is attacked and

then not even investigating the case afterwards since they don’t consider it worth the time

(Garmire). I am not arguing that all police forces act in this manner, but as we have seen

recently in Chicago and Ferguson police misconduct is a real problem and another reason there is

so much inequality in our country.

These occupational and legal disadvantages degrade the lifestyle of lower class people

disproportionately, as they would not be as likely to have alternative opportunities or means of

advancement compared to a person from a wealthy bourgeois background (Shapiro). While it is

certainly reasonable to desire the best workforce possible for your business, drug testing

protocols often punish the relatively harmless marijuana the same as much harder narcotics like

heroin and cocaine. The fact that any kind of minor drug use or other offense is this damaging to

a lower class person's chance of social mobility is severely unjust in a society where all types of

people and social classes commit the same crimes buts still have the opportunity to advance.

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. The War on Drugs

Our country spends billions funding law enforcement efforts for our “War on Drugs”,

and even more housing and feeding prisoners serving time for nonviolent drug offenses

(NORML 2014). This national campaign is both unpopular and ineffective as Americans

continue to find a way to enjoy their substances regardless, along with the fact that many people

see the continued legal sale of alcohol and tobacco as hypocritical and defeating the purpose of

the supposed cause: preserving our nation’s health. On the contrary, Marx would agree that the

ulterior focus of such campaigns is oppression of the lower class and minorities with predatory

drug laws, and financial exploitation of wealthy bourgeois children who can afford to pay the

fines and lawyers.

There are certainly a large amount of people in our nation who would love to see the

decriminalization of narcotics like as marijuana reformed, even if just for medicinal purposes.

An AP poll shows that more than seventy percent of Americans support doctors being able to

prescribe medical marijuana for certain conditions, and even more believe the revenue it can

generate from taxes can help our nation’s economy (Campbell 2015). This tide of favorable

public opinion toward drug law reforms has even reached North Carolina, where a bill was

introduced to allow medicinal use of cannabis, but was swiftly defeated. Marxist theorist may

explain the legalization movement not taking off here like it has in other states is due to

traditional powers embedded in here, specifically big tobacco and religion. Organizations that

support cannabis legalization don’t have anything close to the amount of money and outreach

these institutions possess. Religion is a large part of most people’s lives in the bible belt and I

doubt that will change anytime soon. While the bible doesn’t specifically condemn marijuana;

older and more conservative religious leaders who possess a large amount of social power in our

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smaller rural communities are still heavily opposed to the drug. The tough fact at this point in

time is that the most powerful traditional institutions in our state are both very conservative and

against drug reform.

Sociologically speaking, most traditional conservative and religious groups tend to

oppose marijuana legalization based on shared traditional values including avoiding mind

altering substances. However, major capitalists economic players such as pharmaceutical

corporations and the private prison industry oppose drug policy reform for ulterior reasons which

I believe are best illustrated by Marxist principles. Such powerful capitalist entities stand to

benefit more from the continued criminalization of pot and other controlled substances as

opposed to legalization as Marx explains they are ultimately more concerned with the

accumulation of capital rather than the improvement of social conditions (1883). Cannabis in

particular is a major threat to their precious profits as the plant has been clinically proven to be

effective in helping people suffering from symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

and other mental woes, as well as alleviating the negative effects of radiation in cancer patients

undergoing chemotherapy ( Berlatsky 2012). The low cost and wide availability of cannabis-

derived treatments would be a disaster for pharmaceutical firms as resourceful people could

grow it in their homes inconspicuously and potentially pass it along to others.

The Future

Twenty-three states so far have legalized medicinal cannabis use. Alaska, Colorado,

Oregon and Washington, and Washington D.C. now allow recreational consumption of cannabis.

Now, several jurisdictions in North Carolina have passed laws decriminalizing the possession of

small amounts of marijuana, meaning they have made punishment equivalent to a minor traffic

violation (Norml 2014). My recent undergraduate studies of Sociology have influenced my

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thought process and mindset more than I ever could have imagined. The sociological lens I view

the world with now both fascinate and depress me, but I have learned in life you must take the

good with the bad. Indeed, the Eastern Yin-Yang duality is a concept that can be used to

understand why our country has come so far and achieved such extraordinary accomplishments

but fails miserably sometimes at a simple task: treating everyone the same. The social gap and

inequality in America is unfortunately something that is forever embedded in the roots as our

nation, as the exploitation of African labor through enslavement by white colonists was

indubitably an essential part of how our country became what it is today. Institutionalized

racism perpetrated against African Americans has persisted well up to the present day, even

though conditions for them and other lower class minorities have definitely improved relative to

last century, but for how long I am not sure.

Works Cited

NORML.org - Working to Reform Marijuana Laws. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16, 2015, from http://norml.org/

Berlatsky, N. (2012). Marijuana. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press.

Garmire, B., & Rubin, J. (1972). The police & the community. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Shapiro, T., Meschede, T., & Osoro, S. (2014). The Widening Racial Wealth Gap. The Assets Perspective.

Mills, C. (1963). Power, politics, and people; the collected essays of C. Wright Mills. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Mills, C. (1959). The sociological imagination. New York: Oxford University Press. Marx, K., & Marx, K. (2009). Das kapital a critique of political economy. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Pub. ;.

Mills, C. (1956). The power elite. New York: Oxford University Press.

Legalizing Marijuana. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16, 2015, from http://interactives.ap.org/2015/marijuana/

American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d.). Retrieved December 16, 2015, from https://www.aclu.org/