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Updated: June 24, 2025
The imperial class a minority depends for its continued supremacy upon the ownership of some form of property, whether this property be slaves, or land, or industrial capital. As Veblen puts it: "The emergence of the leisure class coincides with the beginning of ownership."
McGanum was to try to use that cheap X-ray outfit of his on an epithelioma, repaired a frock, drowsily heard Kennicott stoke the furnace, tried to read a page of Thorstein Veblen and the day was gone. Except when Hugh was vigorously naughty, or whiney, or laughing, or saying "I like my chair" with thrilling maturity, she was always enfeebled by loneliness.
Veblen says it is a matter of habit to what particular nationality a man will become attached on arriving at years of discretion. That is true, and it is of course the whole secret of loyalty. But it is not a matter of unimportance whether a man shall become attached to any country. It is the dynamic power of loyalty that is in question, if we consider its practical value.
Knowlton's "The Fruits of Philosophy," advocating Birth Control, and the widespread publicity resulting from his trial. Cf. The Creative Impulse in Industry, by Helen Marot. The Instinct of Workmanship, by Thorstein Veblen. Social Decay and Regeneration. By R. Austin Freeman. London 1921. Carlton H. Parker: The Casual Laborer and other essays: p. 30. R. H. Tawney. The Acquisitive Society, p. 184.
Is it impossible for us to hold to our native experimental habits of life and attain standards of workmanship? Is it possible to realize the full strength of associated effort and at the same time advance wealth production? Germany's industrial supremacy was due, as Professor Veblen shows, to the fact that machine industry was imposed ready-made on a people whose psychology was feudal.
Mediaeval castles, Venetian palaces, colonial mansions, all represented a form of social importance, what Veblen has called conspicuous waste. This was largely shown in maintaining a large retinue and in giving lavish entertainments. The so-called patronage of the arts furnishings, fabrics, pictures, statues, valued to this day came under the same head of rivalry in expenditure.
Already, as Veblen says, "the decay of the ceremonial code or, as it is otherwise called, the vulgarization of life among the industrial classes proper, has become one of the chief enormities of latter-day civilization in the eyes of all persons of delicate sensibilities."
Veblen says wars never occur except when questions of honor are involved, which is of course equivalent to saying that the reaction of anger is always required as an immediate cause of war. Veblen maintains also that emulation is always involved in the patriotic spirit, that patriotism always contains the idea of the defeat of an opponent, and is based upon collective malevolence.
He who seeks to thwart imperial destiny will be branded as traitor to his country and as blasphemer against God. The total area of these countries, exclusive of their colonies, is 807,123 square miles. See "Theory of the Leisure Class," Thorstein Veblen. New York, Huebsch, 1918, Ch. 10. "A History of Missouri," Louis Houck. Chicago, R. R. Donnelly & Sons, 1908, vol. II, p. 346.
A man of education is, of course, expected to be master of all these. Very fitly does Mr. Veblen, in his interesting book, call decorum "a product and an exponent of the leisure-class life." I have heard slighting remarks made by Europeans upon our elaborate discipline of politeness.
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