Mark Twain's take on this tension, in Huckleberry Finn, is worth recapping. A mob comes to attack the local abusive aristocrat, who faces them down with one gun. "There's not one real man among you," he scornfully tells the crowd. This was the image the aristocrats had of themselves, hearkening back to the Cavaliers of the English Civil War, and the roots of lordship in battle. In fact, however, the sugar plantations of the West Indies were about wanton cruelty, widespread rape and the kind of rule by aggression that a surprising number of uber-capitalists espouse today (watch "The Smartest Guys in the Room" about Enron for an exposition of the theme). And that's there in the Twain text also, if you look for it.