taken troubles "too much on their own level" (Mills 129). Neither the values which went undetected nor the structural conditions which imposed them were considered. According to Mills, the final effect of these values were eventually incorporated without being fully acknowledged within "the administrative liberalism of the welfare state" (Mills 129). Without being fully conscious of the process traditional sociological liberals had helped to fashion a social structure which reflected their own biases, their own endorsement of "freedom and reason" (Mills 130). In hindsight, it is possible to observe that these liberal social thinkers may have shaped a system which would work best for those who shared their values of initiative, self-directed action and desire for mobility. Blind to their own unacknowledged biases, they may have shaped a system which actually stagnated rather than inspired those whose values were at odds or not in step with theirs. Mills' comments indicate that the failure of the welfare system might be at least partially traced back
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