Parenti's quote

In his article "The Plutocratic Culture: Institutions, Values and Ideologies", Michael Parenti writes the following: "The desire to 'make it,' even at the expense of others, is not merely a wrong-headed attitude but a reflection of the material conditions of capitalist society wherein no one is ever economically secure except the super-rich." Explain what he means by this. Also, use some of what was expressed in the "Devil and Dave Chappelle" article to think about Parenti's quote.

I interpret Parenti's quote like this; basically he's saying that money shouldn't be the goal of people trying to build successful lives because in the end even those who are successful aren't successful forever. Like in "Devil and Dave Chapelle" the author states "... nothing succeeds like success, but the truth is nothing fails like it, either." I guess it would be how you deem 'making it' if you deem success on how much money you have, Parenti would obviously disagree with you, but I personally think success could be measured in many different ways and it should be left up to the person to decide whether they are successful or not. I don't agree that money is the route to success but to each his own.
The Chappelle article was interesting in that it was true, to me the stereotypes were funny, I'm sure if i actually sat and thought what is Chapelle trying get across here it wouldn't have been hard to figure out but when I would turn on Comedy Central to watch him, laughter was on my mind, not deep thought. Which I assume is the whole point of the article is how white people were laughing at the stereotypes, not with them. But, to defend myself a little I laughed equally at all the stereotypes, including the white ones. I don't know if it's just me but if you're looking for respect and people to take you seriously, comedy is probably not the best place. I will admit though after reading that article I will look more deeply into some of his sketches.