The American Ruling Class (2005)

Lewis Lapham: Self - Introduced by

Quotes 

• Jack Bellamy : Well, I've got an offer from Goldman Sachs to work in investment banking in New York City.

  Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : That's fantastic. Are you excited about that?

  Jack Bellamy : Sure, I guess.

  Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : No guess. Great career. You meet a lot of nice people. Make a lot of money. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Jack. And what about you, Mike?

  Mike Vanzetti : Actually, I thought I might take a year to write and work some odd jobs.

  Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : A shocking misuse of your parent's money.

  Mike Vanzetti : So they tell me.

  Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : Both you gentlemen have a chance to become members of the American ruling class and I don't see why you don't avail yourself of that opportunity.

  Jack Bellamy : Ruling class?

  Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : As was true in the early years of the Republic, the country is governed by a commercial oligarchy and the citizen who cannot afford the luxury of a contrary opinion learns, of necessity, to dance the beggar's waltz.

• Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : "Civil liberties"? Extremely expensive, far too numerous.

• Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : Americans are an inventive people, Mike. Manufacture our ruling elites, we like to call the meritocracy, in the same way that we build SUVs or 747s. The members come and go, and power for a season or generation, then replaced by new technology, fresh money. What never must change, Mike, is the belief that by doing well one is also doing good.

• Lewis Lapham - Fmr. Editor Harper's Magazine : Why try to catch a falling star if there's no market for the product?