ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a divergent view compared to commonsensical notions of failure. What is success? Tennessee Williams said success is a “catastrophe” in the USA, since it means great wealth, luxury and inequalities. Sociologist Robert Merton analysed this US assumption of success, calling it anomie, the acquisitiveness of a “sick” society. Social philosophers favoured hermeneutics and sociology of knowledge, greatly supported by feminists and blacks. Orthodox economics sealed itself off, claiming the status of natural science, somewhat similar to postmodern individualist opinions. This rejection of social sciences was shown to be “physics envy” but which served banking and corporate interests. It legitimated mass depressions and thus serious failures, the author’s evidence demonstrates.
