William Josiah Goode
WILLIAM JOSIAH GOODE   Macroknow Library
     

   
The Celebration of Heroes: Prestige as a Social Control System.

" . . . [T]hree control factors . . . determine which social strata or classes exist in any society. Besides force and force threat, they are wealth and prestige."1a*

" . . . [P]restige is the esteem, respect, or approval that is granted by an individual or a collectivity for performances or qualities they consider above the average."1b*

"Much corporate activity aims at manipulating officials by bribes, gifts, and campaign contributions, so they will arrange for government purchases from a particular seller."1c

" . . . [I]t is a condition of their trade that embezzlers must succeed in presenting themselves as law-abiding until they are found out. So must all white collar criminals."1d

". . . [S]ubversion is especially tempting in an activity where there are few gatekeepers and these few have great influence. This is the situation in many professions."1e

" . . . [A]nother type of subversion: robbing other of deserved esteem, and defaming them. This is often accomplished by unfairly labeling them--as criminals, juvenile delinquents, or deviants of some type."1f

" . . . [T]oward the lower classes, a higher percentage of people believe the system is rigged. . .
" . . . [T]oward the upper social strata, more people have actually witnessed subversive behavior at those privileged levels than have outsiders.
"1g

"The more responsible one is for the harmdoing, and the greater the harm done, the more likely one is to derogate the victim. . . If the victim is viewed as bad or incompetent in some way, then he or she "deserves" some of the misfortune, and little injustice was done."1h

"When people threaten to take power from the hands of the privileged, the latter are more likely to hand out justice than when no such threat is made."1i


     
   

* Italics in the original.

1 William J. Goode (1917-2003). The Celebration of Heroes: Prestige as a Social Control System. The Regents of the University of California, 1978. Berkeley, CA: University of California.
a 1. Social Control Through Prestige Processes, at 2-3.
b
Ibid., at 7.
c
3. Market and Nonmarket Bases of Social Control, at 53.
d
10. The Dynamics of Subversion, at 257.
e
11. Structural Bases of Subversion, at 267.
f
Ibid., at 276.
g
Ibid., at 285-286.
h
13. The Problem of Justice, at 365.
i
Ibid., at 372.

MK-BOOKS-GOODE-20061002.