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reject the heritage of their parents, those on the fringes of society
no longer share its central values, values which no longer translate
into recognized institutional norms. But the nature of the crisis is
quite different . The social order is not at all disorganized; it imposes
itself more brutally than ever. The centers of power penetrate social
life with their destructive influences more deeply than ever. In
Europe, more than in the United States, the introduction of indus–
trial capitalism in the last century was marked by brutal proletariza–
tion. The authoritarian organization of labor destroyed working-class
culture. Today the power of the ruling class is not only felt in the
work environment. There is no power without political control and
especially without ideological manipulation; propaganda and adver–
tising are everywhere at work. There is constant talk of education;
that is, cultural as well as social control. We are all swept up by a huge
pump, sucked in and forced out, summoned to participate,
to
play
the game,
to
buy and
to
crave. But we are also put back in our place if
we are naive enough to believe in equality in a mass society. Every–
one should go
to
school; but what an error to conclude that education
should equalize opportunities and standards of living; its function is
the direct opposite:
to
legitimize inequality and domination.
The societies of the past isolated the lower classes, or shut them
up within a communal culture that was much less the product of
tradition than of exclusion and conquest. Today, on the other hand,
everyone is invited to subordinate participation,
to
the glitter of con–
sumption. Behavior marked by withdrawal or aggression, disorgani–
zation or violence is simply the counterpart of this manipulation. The
objects sparkle, they lie within arm's reach and arouse desire, but we
are separated from them by the shop window of inequality and
institutional barriers. How could one not be tempted to break the
glass and take what one wants? Withdrawal and violence, invariably
associated, reveal the alienation of the working classes far more than
they indicate disorganization in the established social order. The
crisis does not consist in the breakdown of traditions, but in the
obstacles that prevent conflict and the organization of social and
political protest. We must choose, not between integration and crisis,
but between crisis and conflict-between acceptance of the normal
