The Right Kind of People are Above That Kind of Thing

This has always been true of the upper classes - whose higher status demanded that they be interested in higher things.

In America, the middle classes became obsessed with imitating everything about the upper classes. And plenty of books explained how to do this - even how to walk, and have the proper upper-class carriage. What clothes to wear, and what food to eat. How to climb the social ladder.

This was an important function of the Movies, whose Stars proved that instant success was possible.

It went without saying, that lots of money was necessary also - and one should not be too scrupulous about how one acquired this.

This obsession to imitate gradually faded as the middle classes acquired financial security - good, permanent jobs. And fine homes in the suburbs, and new cars. They acquired middle-class respectability - and that was good enough for them.

But part of this respectability was a new attitude toward how things worked - they did not want to know about that. They had acquired their wealth by accident, and they did not want to know how this accident occurred. They assumed they were rewarded with this wealth, because of their innate goodness. Which was not true, at all.

The stage was set for the Fall of America - Americans were incompetent about nearly everything, and could not maintain their Great Society.

To make things work, you had to know how they worked,