-Caveat Lector- from: Elite Deviance (Fifth Edition) David R. Simon Allyn & Bacon(C) 1996,1993,1990,1986,1982 A Simon & Schuster Company Needham Heights, Massachusetts 02194 ISBN 0-205-16460-9 ----- An interesting book. Here is a taste. Om K ----- Preface This fifth edition of Elite Deviance is written at a time of crisis and corruption almost without precedent in U.S. history. The President of the United States faces lawsuits for both conflict of interest and sexual harassment. Both incidents took place before his election as President. Thanks to its recent scandals, Congress is now held in such low esteem that many of its members refuse to seek reelection. Corporate life is marked by one scandal after another--a billion-dollar plus fraud scam at Prudential and the laundering of drug money by major New York banks, to name just two. Scandal seems everywhere present in U.S. life: A rabbi is indicted for laundering drug money. Rock idol Michael Jackson paid $100 million to buy the silence of a - family whose child he is accused of molesting. Football icon, former broadcaster, and actor O. J. Simpson is indicted for killing his ex-wife and her friend. The Jackson and Simpson cases demonstrate that the private lives of elites may indeed turn into scandal, if their deviance or suspected deviance becomes public knowledge. The purpose of Elite Deviance has always been to underscore two central concerns. 1. Scandal in contemporary U.S. life is an institutionalized sociological phenomenon. It is not due primarily to psychopathological and/or bio- pathological variables. Rather, scandal is built into the very fabric of U.S. institutions, which means that scandals will occur regularly. This institutionalization of elite wrongdoing is a major focus of the book. 2. Many of the scandals that have occurred in the United States since 1963 have been fundamentally interrelated; that is, the same people and institutions have been involved in a number of scandals (e.g., the Kennedy assassination and Watergate). The interrelationship of these various scandals warrants systematic, dispassionate analysis by social scientists, but so far, very little interest has been directed to this issue. We hope that this will begin to change soon. This edition of Elite Deviance is written in the hope that those students who read it will begin to develop a true sociological imagination.(1) American students of social science tend to place much emphasis on individual deviance, individual rights, and individual cases; thus, the realization of how societal variables affect people's values and behaviors has been lost. The notion that society shapes individual character is especially unappreciated. If the problems related to elite deviance are ever to be resolved, we must begin to analyze and attack them at their roots. We believe that overwhelming evidence shows that these roots are sociological in nature. THE ORGANIZATION OF THIS BOOK Chapter 1 addresses the problem of defining elite deviance. In doing so, we review the representative forms of wrongdoing by wealthy and powerful individuals and organizations that are encompassed by the concept elite deviance. Chapter 2 discusses the higher immorality as an aspect of the U.S. elite, a sort of systemic violation of the laws and ethics of business and politics. This includes everything from hiring prostitutes to close business agreements to hiring members of criminal syndicates to gain a business or political advantage. In addition, the term refers to special advantages that business executives receive from government, including tax breaks and subsidies, as well as special salary arrangements that bypass tax laws. The term also applies to the violation of antitrust laws. Hence, it covers a host of illegal and unethical practices. The Kennedy assassination is introduced in this chapter. Chapters 3 and 4 are devoted exclusively to economic deviance. Specifically, Chapter 3 details the problems generated by the monopolistic structure of the economy, including price fixing, price gouging, deceptive advertising, and fraud. Chapter 4 discusses the more dangerous aspects of corporate deviance, including hazardous products, pollution, dangerous working conditions, and resource waste. Chapter 5 examines the international dimensions of corporate and political deviance. We discuss U.S. defense policy, including defense contracting and arms sales, the bribery and product dumping of multinational corporations, and violations of human rights as they relate to U.S. foreign policy and the questionable practices of multinational corporations. Chapters 6 and 7 deal exclusively with various dimensions of political deviance. Chapter 6 focuses on the types of political corruption that have characterized the history of U.S. domestic politics. Chapter 7 explores political repression in the United States, including the bias of the criminal justice system, as well as the abuses of power perpetrated by such agencies as the FBI, the CIA, and the Internal Revenue Service. Domestic assassinations are examined in this context. We believe that scientific objectivity and questions about values are interrelated and cannot therefore be divorced from each other. To this end, Chapter 8 offers a theory of elite deviance, relating the various elements of social structure and social character responsible for causing much of the deviance described in this book. The theoretical propositions we advance are both measurable in the scientific sense and moral in the humanistic sense that they address harm to both society and its citizens. We have prepared this chapter because the field of corporate or white-collar elite deviance remains quite new and has barely moved beyond the stage of classifying various examples upon which a theory could be based. Chapter 8 represents our effort to both summarize and synthesize extant empirical examples and theoretical viewpoints in order to begin the construction of a coherent theory of elite deviance. Chapter 9 addresses what has been called "the scandalization of America," focusing on the series of interrelated scandals that has wracked the United States in recent history. The chapter begins with a discussion of the emergence of the so-called secret government, an entity characterized by a code that far exceeds the deviance Mills outlined in his description of the higher immorality. The Iran-Contra affair is described in some detail, illustrating how this scandal was related to a number of other incidents of wrongdoing, generally involving the same players. The Kennedy assassination is included in this review of interrelated incidents. The chapter concludes with an evaluation of the implications of the scandalization of the United States for the theoretical and empirical study of elite deviance. The Epilogue grew out of my experiences with students. Often students become fatalistic about resolving social problems that relate to the distribution of wealth and power in the United States. My conviction is that the United States is democratic in form and that meaningful solutions to the problem of elite deviance can come through democratic processes. I do not believe that the necessary changes will be easy, but we insist that they are worth struggling to attain. The Epilogue describes one plan for making significant changes in the economic system. I feel that this proposal will eliminate or at least minimize the forms of elite deviance discussed in this book. We invite the reader to consider this plan seriously and to think of other alternatives that might be effective in diminishing elite deviance. NOTE 1. See C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), and David R. Simon, Social Problems and the Sociological Imagination (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995) for extended discussions. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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