The lottery myth

It's so difficult to understand how the pride in identifying as "working class" was lost in the US, and how far along the process of subsuming ordinary people's interests into the interests of the ruling elite has gotten. I've long repeated the thesis that explains these phenomena with "the lottery myth." The idea is that regular folks allow the society to continue being restructured so as to deny them even the barest necessities (decent food, adequate shelter, good education, and proper medical care) while augmenting the power of the rich to indulge their every whim, because everyone in the US harbors the dream that sometime soon, I'm going to win the lottery and have all those privileges. Once I have access, it won't matter to me that most people don't.

Perhaps this is part of the explanation for the proliferation and popularity of "reality" TV shows--they are variations on the lottery, with a few lucky folks getting instant access to fame and the trappings of power.