Max Weber on Trump

In our never ending quest to understand more deeply the Trump phenomenon and our current moment, my mind ran back to an old passage from the German sociologist Max Weber, who once said of the United States:

A corruption and wastefulness second to none could be tolerated only by a country with as yet unlimited economic opportunities.

Pretty sure the corruption and waste have now discovered (by imposing) the limits of our economic opportunities. Weber was also struck by the reasons Americans gave him, in his visit in the 1880s, for why they tolerated politicians they despise:

Scarcely fifteen years ago, when American workers were asked why they allowed themselves to be governed by politicians whom they admitted they despised, the answer was: “We prefer having people in office whom we can spit upon, rather than a caste of officials who spit upon us, as is the case with you.”

Well, we solved that problem, too.

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