... A CULTURAL ABSORPTION CULTURE, SOCIETY, DISDAINED INDUSTRIALISTS AND THE CONSEQUENCES To understand why-as part of Martin J. Wiener's theory-the cultural absorption of the middle class into a quasi-aristocratic elite occurred, it is necessary to consider social, cultural and economic aspects and circumstances in Great Britain. First, to address the social and cultural circumstances, there was a negative sentiment towards industry, manufacturing and commerce-typical middle-class businesses. The industrialist, Wiener (1981, p. 127) claims, "...was an essential part of English society, yet he was never quite sure of his place." Not only, Wiener points out, "the educated public's suspicions of business and industry" were obvious, moreover, the whole society showed "...distrust of materialism and economic change." Wiener (1981, p. 130) quotes D.C. Coleman who "complained in his Cambridge inaugural lecture, [that] 'the businessman has not simply been one of the more unloved figures of the English history; worse than that, he has never ...

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