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Charles A. Reich

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“Consciousness I could not grasp, or could not accept, the reality that the individual was no longer competing against the success of other individuals, but against a system...It could not understand the crucial point that collective action against corporate power would not have been a step toward collectivization, but an effort to preserve democracy in a society that had already been collectivized.”

“Consciousness I proved unable to change with the changing realities of America. Today it still sees America as if it were a world of small towns and simple virtues. Invention and machinery and production are the equivalent of progress; material success ids the road to happiness, nature is beautiful but must be conquered and put to use. Competition is the law of nature and man; life is a harsh pursuit of individual self-interest. Consciousness I believes that the American dream is still possible, and that success is determined by character, morality, hard work, and self-denial. It does not accept that organizations predominate individuals in American life, or that social problems are due to something other than bad character, or that the possibility of individual success, based on ability and enterprise is largely out of date.”

“Not only would Americans have no understanding of the dangers of industrialism; no culture, tradition, social order, or inner knowledge of self by which to guide industrial values and choose among them...Divided up into individual units defined by self-interest, they had no way of thinking for the common good, or thinking ahead, and the anti-intellectual and sometimes childish tendency of Americans to not think at all allowed them to rest easy in this posture”