HAPPENINGS
545
role of the army in the society in which he lives. One encounters
sociologists in advertising - those thousands of forms of conditioning to
which the consumer is subjected - and in the experimental study of
media, here too, without attempting to criticize the social function of
these media, etc.
And what is the attitude of American sociologists toward the central
problem of social classes? The concept of class and the concept of
discontinuity (class struggle) have been eliminated and replaced by
notions of classes and strata endowed with status, power and prestige.
Society has become a ladder on which each rung represents a definite
quantity of power and prestige, the quantities increasing proportionately
as you get closer to the top. Of course, each individual starts out with
the same opportunities to climb up the pyramid, since we are living
(who isn't?) in a democracy.
Besides the theoretical refutations of Mills and Riesman, the prac–
tical refutations of the American subproletariat (ethnic minorities) and
the complaints of certain labor groups against their unions suffice to
dispel the illusion that integration has been achieved.
Quite recently, the riots of the American black people have aroused
so much fear that additional funds have been appropriated to sociologists
so that they can study the movements of crowds and provide formulas
for repression (this was reported in
Le M onde) .
Finally, with bitter irony, when the Secretary of Defense was
launching an antisubversive program in Latin America (the famous
Camelot project) but trying to conceal it, he could think of no better
disguise than to label it a "sociological" study program....
And what about France?
On the theoretical level the rationalization of capitalism certainly
dates back to the postwar period, but it became effective only with
Gaullism and its authoritarian structures. And it is no accident that a
university degree in sociology was established in 1958. The disparity in
development between French capitalism and American capitalism is
echoed in the field of ideas. All our contemporary sociology is imported
from across the Atlantic a few years after the fact; and everyone knows
that the most highly regarded sociologists are those who most attentively
follow the American publications.
Sociological "Theory"
We have seen the close relationship of sociology to social demand.
The concrete organization of capitalism gives rise to a mass of contra–
dictions, and for each one of these a sociologist is put to work. One is
