ABSTRACT

Attitudes are interesting aspects of personality; people tend to believe that they have worked out their attitudes on a rational basis, but they often get extremely emotional when someone is attacking them. Many people hold the view that primitive man was in some way more natural; equating what is natural with what is noble and generous in people's nature, they conclude that civilization acts in such a way as to defile this primitive nobility and produce decadence and other symptoms of an unnatural life. The usual communist argument, and the usual communist practice, seem to cede the point; according to them the working class is dumb, and needs someone to speak for it. Progressive opinions which are not directly linked with the possession and disposal of private property are more likely to be held by middle-class people than by working-class people.