Critical sociologies and ressentiment: The examples of C. Wright Mills and Howard Becker

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that American sociology underwent a metamorphosis during the 1960s. This transformation was both paradigmatic and political. Advocates of critical theory, broadly understood, driven by a markedly leftist political sensitivity, took center stage in that turbulent decade and marginalized proponents of formerly authoritative frameworks such as Functionalism, in general, or Parsonsian action theory while casting suspicion upon sociological work presuming to be objective and value-free, i.e., “scientific.” Among the formidable figures who engineered this paradigm shift were C. Wright Mills and Howard Becker, both of whom have been elevated to iconic status. They are presumed to have helped lead professional sociology out of the dark ages and to have invigorated the discipline with a constructive humanism that attended to real social problems and which called for a better world, one committed to a genuine egalitarianism. In the final analysis, however, there is reason to doubt whether the works of Mills and Becker—and the metamorphosis they helped bring about—were at all constructive and humanistic. Rather, the evidence seems to suggest that the motive force behind Mills’ and Becker’s research was ressentiment. Following Max Scheler’s classic work on the subject of negative feelings in modern society, I argue that Mills and Becker were ultimately driven by an egalitarianism that was neither affirming nor loving. Rather, this egalitarianism was essentially leveling, content to forever dismantle social realities and lower entities presumed elite without ever reconstituting the world. Thus, Mills and Becker (and by extension large coteries of contemporary sociologists) were against many things, but for very little; the objects of their criticism were clear enough, but their meliorative agendas were either absent altogether, or, when pressed, incoherent from self-contradiction. And, as Scheler contended, critical sociological work bereft of an affirming voice contributes to the negation of value.