Workers’ antiquated capitalist stereotypes persist because employers grew more distant

Evidence

The resignation of so many workers in the face of what seemed to be an overpowering opponent appeared, in the Popitz study, as a kind of hangover or depression. … Behind the many proverbial expressions usede.g. Money makes the world go round'there is in fact an ideological tradition. Wealth, possession of a commanding position and knowledge are still, in the way in which they are reciprocally determined and indivisible, the marks of the power of capitalism in the eyes of many workers. … Since immediate familiarity with workers, instead of becoming easier, had become more difficult for the employer than before, it was possible for the old doctrine to survive, and he was still being described as a capitalist’. `There is a certain irony in the fact that the image of the employer, exaggerated for educational purposes and made into a warning contrast, has an intimidating effect on today’s sceptical worker.’ — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2102

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: The ironic claim that an image exaggerated for warning ends up intimidating workers parallels the earlier article on moral panics where exaggerated threats backfire on their promulgators.
• XREF: connects to: The abstraction of modern employer-worker relations preserved the old capitalist image. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2105; Many West German workers saw employer-employee relations as irreconcilable polarity. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2101

Broader Connections

• The abstraction of modern employer-worker relations preserved the old capitalist image. #corroborates (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2105