The ability to be inspired is one of the grandest attributes that a person can possess. C. Wright Mills had precisely that quality. And his works provide a plethora of evidence, and serve as respectable illustrations of how he was influenced. Noticeable echoes of Marxism, Weberian Sociology, and the Pragmatism of George Heber Mead live within the pages of his writings.
Consequently and fortunately, my reading over biographical books and articles of Mills has increased my awareness of my own capacity to be inspired. Keeping the mind vacant to the brilliance of others is essential to the luminosity of one's own mind, I would opine.
Who is C. Wright Mills?
Charles Wright Mills greeted Waco Texas on the 28th day of August, in 1916. He would mature to be a notable sociologist, professor, and writer.
As young Mills matured, he experienced the severing of several relationships he had formed over the years, due to the frequent movement of his family. This subjected the young scholar to a good deal of seclusion.
Mills continued his education to a plausible extent; moving on after high school (Dallas Technical High School) to embark on collegiate scholarship at Texas A&M University. However, his tenure at A&M ended prematurely; instead, he graduated in 1939 from the University of Texas at Austin.
An undergraduate degree didn't suffice for the eager Mills. He received a doctorate in sociology in 1941, through the academic programme of the University of Wisconsin--Madison.
An Amourous man
While his neurons fired away, as they should with any man of thought, his heart proved to be just as fiery. In fact, it was indeed his studies that led him to meet the woman that he would marry.
Dorothy Helen Smith too studied at Texas--a place that seemingly taught the two to fall in love with one another. The duo married; and Mrs. Wright swiftly began to demontrate her suport for Mills.
She is responsible for an appreciable amount of work to financially support herelf and her newly-wed mate, as he mentally muscled through the demands of graduate studies. Further, she lent a typist's and editor's hand to Mills' jottings. For him such assistance would prove professionally helpful--very helpful.
For whatever reason, Charles Mills didn't find himself sated by having experienced marriage only once thus far, he went on, later in life to propose marriage to two other women--both accepted--but I needn't elaborate on the other two lovely ladies. If you wish to read further into romance, 50 Shades of Grey may be able to provide your poison. Or, you could wait until my pen feels naughty. I'm dying of digression here.
Rolling Stone
Just as was commonplace during his more tender youth, Mills moved. It could be quite the struggle for one to harness their growing potential while sedentary; being idle was something that he would never master.
Formal education credentials are considered commendable, widely. But to turn training into honest labour augments credibility. With this new move--to the University of Maryland--Mills begins his journey to establish credibilty.
He was made professor of sociology, but he only held the position for four years. I suppose his ambitiousness overcame him.From there Mills left to accept a position where he would be a research associate at Columbia Univesity's Bureau of Applied Social Reasearch. He excelled on to be deemed assistant professor of the sociology department.
Confidence and Independence
Mills was very much so the autonomous man. In my opinion, one of the most outstanding things Mills ever articulated is that he is a "Wobbly". His words were: " It's a kind of spiritual condition...Wobbly is not only a man who takes orders from himself. He's also a man who's often in the situation where there are no regulations to fall back upon, which he hasn't made up himself. He doesn't like bosses, capitalistic or communistic, they're all the same to him. He wants to be, and wants everyone else to be, his own boss at all times under all conditions and for any purposes they may want to follow up. This kind of freedom is Wobbly freedom."
I welcome such freedom, and can admire the person who could fancy such an idea. I interpret this as having healthy understanding of one's self and one's society. It requires the confidence to have and unshakeable belief in one's self, with the courage and love to believe in others.
His Influences:
Marxism
While Mills never claimed himself to be Marxist, he openly expressed his appreciation for Marx, saying: "I believe Karl Marx one of the most astute students of society modern civilisation has ever produced; his work is now essential equipment of any adequately trained social scientist as well as any properly educated person."
He didnt mean that Marxism was the definitive rule of sociology, clearly; he was merely demonstrating Marxism's importance. He respected the tradition of the science of it.
The premise for Marxism is a materialist understanding of how society develops. Born in the near centre of the 19th century, it combines an organised interpretation of history, philosophical anthropology and socio-political programmes.
Weberian Sociology
Max Weber was a bit more of an influence on Mill's sociology. The German born sociologist has a system that is composed of the kinship of institutional orders. Mills understanding of Weber's structure is that it's capitalistic. Well, considerable volumes of his work were indeed of capitalism. Regarding the matter, Weber contended that strong capitalism requires specific institutions, economic and non-economic.Though he warned that capitalism will crumble if something else isn't provided--insert it if you know it.
The Pragmatism of George Heber Mead
He wasn't solely a sociologist. Mead boasted the title of American philosopher and psychologist. Philosophers who lean towards pragmatism, direct attention to the development of the self and the objectivity of the world within social parameters that "the individual mind can exist only in relation to other minds with shared meanings."(Mead)
Indigenous to the United States, Pragmatism began circa 1870. The central point of Pragmatism involves analysing conjectures, or more precisely, hypotheses by tracing their "practical consequences." It is the pursuit of a predicted truth--a truth that must be substantiated by way of practical models and means.
George Mead was instrumental to the work of Mills, who explicitly bows to Mead in his book Character and Social Structure. He expressed how he'd like to marry the pholosophical schools of thought of Mead and Freud, so that he could " arrive at a convergence of the social and psychological bases of personality."
Died as a Great
Mills went on to have a number of works published. Before leaving this life peacefully, in a gentle sleep, he applied the final touchces to the Marxist. His tenacity, passion, and assertiveness is remembered through his journals, books and other contributions to social science. He was known to stand firmly for what he knew to be true, a quality we all could benefit from utilising. Today, his words stand firmly on the pages that many sociologists and other intellectuals look to in respect.
-sreehc, Derrick Antonio
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