uman attitudes and mentalities that this process occasions, Weber liked to quote Friedrich Schiller's phrase, the 'disenchantment of the world.' The extent and direction of 'rationalization' is thus measured negatively in terms of the degree to which magical elements of thought are displaced, or positively by the extent to which ideas gain in systematic coherence and naturalistic consistency (Gerth and Mills 51).
This does not mean that a mere rational attitude guarantees one kind of perfect social structure. It also does not mean that rationalism itself is perfect. First of all, many different "rational conclusions" (Weber, 1946, p. 324) have been drawn by many different societies in the world. Secondly, rationalism itself is impersonal and bureaucratic--the enemy of personal freedom and the individual personality. The picture of bureaucracy as a corruption of social organization is always in the background of Weber's theory of the connection between rationalism and capitalistic society.
There is also the question of conflict, and it is here that the theoretical tension of bureaucracy and the rational social structure highlights child abuse as a social problem. Turner explains the core of Weber's view of power in society:
[W]hen economic elites, for example, are also social and political elites, and vice versa, then those who are excluded from power, wealth, and prestige become resentful and receptive to conflict alternatives.
Another condition is dramatic discontinuity in the distribution of rewards, or the existence of divisions in social hierarchies that give privilege to some and very little to others. When only a few hold power, wealth, and prestige and the rest are denied those rewards, then tensions and resentments exist. Such resentments become a further inducement for those without power, prestige, and wealth to engage in conflict with those who hoard these resources.
A final condition encouraging conflict is ...