"Leaders painted themselves in heroic colors claiming that their wealth was due to their skill, diligence, insight, forethought, perseverance, guts, cunning etc. The result was a romantically tinged picture of what was merely unbridled ruthlessness, and what was not seen or discussed was the fact that they were at heart rough, shrewd, skilled opportunists whose methods were devious, unstable, brutal, corrupt, mean, nasty, rapacious, gross, vulgar and totally unprincipled men who had simply battened on the blood of the American system to suck it out. But they were successful, and so “success became the visible evidence of spiritual merit,” as Schlesinger said. Individuals who made good deserved the gratitude and applause of all mankind. This verges on the disgusting." Sale
