"In such a hierarchy, mediocrity makes its own rules and sets its own image of success. And the path of ascent itself is as likely to be administrative duty as creative work."

Mills also attacks the non-educational work of professors. "The merging type of professional-and-businessman seeks to be and often is an entrepreneur who can exploit special privileges. Among these is the use of both business and professional bureaucracies. The professor sells the prestige of his university to secure market-research jobs in order to build a research unit; he is privileged over commercial agencies because of his connection with the university."

Possibly Testing Ideas

In dividing up the academic world, Mills finds the following types of teachers. "The 'producer' is the man who creates ideas, first sets them forth, possibly tests them, or at any rate makes them available in writing to those portions of the market capable of understanding them . . .

"Then there are the 'wholesalers,' who while they do not produce ideas do distribute them in textbooks to other academic men, who in turn sell them directly to student consumers. In so far as men teach, and only teach, they are 'retailers' of ideas and materials, the better of them being serviced by original producers, the lesser, by wholesalers.

"All academic men, regardless of type, are also 'consumers' of the products of others . . . But it is possible for some to specialize in consumption: these become great 'comprehenders,' rather than 'users,' of books, and they are great on bibliographies."