Quote #6

Those in authority within institutions and social structures attempt to justify their rule by linking it, as if it were a necessary consequence, with moral symbols, sacred emblems, or legal formulae which are widely believed and deeply internalized (by the masses).These central conceptions may refer to a god or gods, 'the votes of the majority', ('freedom', 'democracy'): or the alleged extraordinary endowment of the person of the ruler himself.Various thinkers have used different terms to refer to this phenomena: Mosca's 'political formula' or 'great superstition', Locke's 'principal of sovereignty',Sorel's 'ruling myth',Weber's 'legitimations', Durkheim's 'collective representations', Marx's 'dominant ideas':Mannheim's 'ideology', Herbert Spencer's 'public sentiments' Gramsci's 'hegemony' all point to the central place of master symbols in social analysis.'

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All C. Wright Mills quotes