 Section 29 of THE THEORY OF THE LEASURE CLASS The guiding habits of thought to the devout person move on the plane of an archaic scheme of life which has outlived much of its usefulness for the economic exigencies of the collective life of today. Insofar as the economic organization fits the exigencies of the collective life of today, it has outlived the regime of status and has no use and no place for a relation of personal subserviency. So far as concerns the economic efficiency of the community, the sentiment of personal fealty and the general habit of mind of which that sentiment is an expression are survivals which cumber the ground and hinder an adequate adjustment of human institutions to the existing situation. The habit of mind which best lends itself to the purposes of a peaceable industrial community is that matter of fact temper which recognizes the value of material facts simply as opaque items in the mechanical sense. It is that frame of mind which does not instinctively impugn an animistic propensity to things nor resort to preternatural intervention as an explanation of perplexing phenomena, nor depend on an unseen hand to shape the course of events to human use. To meet the requirements of the highest economic efficiency under modern conditions, the world process must habitually be apprehended in terms of quantitative, dispassionate force and sequence. As seen from the point of view of the later economic exigencies, devoutness is perhaps in all cases to be looked upon as a survival from an earlier phase of associated life, a mark of arrested spiritual development. Of course it remains true that in a community where the economic structure is still substantially a system of status, where the attitude of the average of persons in the community is consequently shaped by and adapted to the relation of personal dominance and personal subservience, or where, for any other reason, of tradition or of inherited aptitude, the population as a whole is strongly inclined to devout observances. There is a devout habit of mind in any individual, not in excess of the average of the community, must be taken simply as a detail of the prevalent habit of life. In this light, a devout individual in a devout community cannot be called a case of reversion, since he is abreast of the average of the community. But as seen from the point of view of the modern industrial situation, exceptional devoutness, devotional zeal that rises appreciably above the average pitch of devoutness in the community may safely be set down, as in all cases, an adivistic trait. It is of course equally legitimate to consider these phenomena from a different point of view. They may be appreciated for a different purpose, and the characterization here offered may be turned about. In speaking from the point of view of the devotional interest or the interest of devout taste, it may, with equal cogency, be said that the spiritual attitude bred in men by the modern industrial life is unfavorable to a free development of the life of faith. It might fairly be objected to the latter development of the industrial process, that its discipline tends to materialism, to the elimination of filial piety. From the aesthetic point of view, again, something to a similar purport might be said. But however legitimate and valuable these and alike reflections may be for their purpose, they would not be in place with the present inquiry, which is exclusively concerned with the valuation of these phenomena from the economic point of view. The grave economic significance of the anthropomorphic habit of mind and of the addiction to devout observances must serve as apology for speaking further on a topic which it cannot but be distasteful to discuss at all as an economic phenomenon in a community so devout is ours. Devout observances are of economic importance as an index of a concomitant variation of temperament accompanying the predatory habit of mind and so indicating the presence of industrially disserviceable traits. They indicate the presence of a mental attitude which has a certain economic value of its own by virtue of its influence upon the industrial serviceability of the individual. But they are also of importance, more directly, in modifying the economic activities of the community, especially as regards the distribution and consumption of goods, on which an anthropomorphic cult rests. That is to say, they further the habits of thought characteristic of the regime of status. They are, in so far, an obstruction to the most effective organization of industry under modern circumstances and are, in the first instance, antagonistic to the development of economic institutions in the direction required by the situation of today. For the present purpose, the indirect as well as the direct effects of this consumption are of the nature of a curtailment of the community's economic efficiency. In economics theory, then, and considered in its proximate consequences, the consumption of goods and effort in the service of an anthropomorphic divinity means a lowering of the vitality of the community. What may be the remote or indirect moral effects of this class of consumption does not admit of a succinct answer, and it is a question which cannot be taken up here. It will be to the point, however, to note the general economic character of devout consumption in comparison with consumption for other purposes. An indication of the range of motives and purposes from which devout consumption of goods proceeds will help toward an appreciation of the value both of this consumption itself and of the general habit of mind to which it is congenial. There is a striking parallelism, if not rather a substantial identity of motive, between the consumption which goes to the service of an anthropomorphic divinity and that which goes to the service of a gentleman of leisure, chieftain, or patriarch in the upper class of society during the barbarian culture. Both in the case of the chieftain and in that of the divinity, there are expensive edifices set apart for the behoof of the person served. These edifices, as well as the properties which supplement them in the service, must not be common in kind or grade. They always show a large element of conspicuous waste. It may also be noted that the devout edifices are invariably of an archaic cast in their structure and fittings. So also the servants, both of the chieftain and of the divinity, must appear in the presence clothed in garments of a special ornate character. The characteristic economic feature of this apparel is a more than ordinarily accentuated conspicuous waste, together with the secondary feature, more accentuated in the case of the priestly servants than in that of the servants or courtiers of the barbarian potentate. That this court dress must always be in some degree of an archaic fashion. Also the garments worn by the lay members of the community when they come into the presence should be of a more expensive kind than their everyday apparel. Here again, the parallelism between the usage of the chieftain's audience hall and that of the sanctuary is fairly well marked. In this respect there is required a certain ceremonial cleanness of attire. The essential feature of which, in the economic respect, is that the garments worn on these occasions should carry as little suggestion as may be of any industrial occupation or of any habitual addiction to such employments as are of material use. This requirement of conspicuous waste and of ceremonial cleanness from the traces of industry extends also to the apparel and in no less degree to the food which is consumed on sacred holidays. That is to say, on days set apart, taboo, for the divinity or for some member of the lower ranks of the preternatural leisure class. In economic theory sacred holidays are obviously to be construed as a season of vicarious leisure performed for the divinity or saint in whose name the taboo is imposed and to whose good repute the abstention from useful effort on these days is conceived to endure. The characteristic feature of all such seasons of devout vicarious leisure is a more or less rigid taboo on all activity that is of human use. In the case of fast days the conspicuous abstention from gainful occupations and from all pursuits that materially further human life is further accentuated by compulsory abstinence from such consumption as would conduce to the comfort or the fullness of the life of the consumer. It may be remarked parenthetically that secular holidays are of the same origin by slightly remote derivation. They shade off by degrees from the genuinely sacred days through an intermediate class of semi-sacred birthdays of kings and great men who have been in some measure canonized to the deliberately invented holiday set apart to further the good repute of some notable event or some striking fact to which it is intended to do honor or the good fame of which is felt to be in need of repair. The remotor refinement in the employment of vicarious leisure as a means of augmenting the good repute of a phenomenon or datum is seen at its best in its very latest application. A day of vicarious leisure has in some communities been set apart as labor day. This observance is designed to augment the prestige of the fact of labor by the archaic predatory method of a compulsory abstention from useful effort. To this datum of labor in general is imputed the good repute attributable to the pecuniary strength put in evidence by abstaining from labor. Sacred holidays and holidays generally are of the nature of a tribute levied on the body of the people. The tribute is paid in vicarious leisure and the honorific effect which emerges is imputed to the person or the fact for whose good repute the holiday has been instituted. Such a tithe of vicarious leisure is a perquisite of all members of the preternatural leisure class and is indispensable to their good fame. Un sangkwon ne chompa is indeed a saint fallen on evil days. Besides this tithe of vicarious leisure levied on the laity, there are also special classes of persons, the various grades of priests and hieroduals, whose time is wholly set apart for a similar service. It is not only incumbent on the priestly class to abstain from vulgar labor, especially so far as it is lucrative or is apprehended to contribute to the temporal well-being of mankind. The taboo in this case of the priestly class goes farther and adds a refinement in the form of an injunction against their seeking worldly gain even where it may be had without debasing application to industry. It is felt to be unworthy of the servant of the divinity, or rather unworthy the dignity of the divinity whose servant he is, that he should seek material gain or take thought for temporal matters. Of all contemptible things a man who pretends to be a priest of God and is a priest to his own comforts and ambitions is the most contemptible. There is a line of discrimination, which a cultivated taste in matters of devout observance finds little difficulty in drawing between such actions and conduct as conduce to the fullness of human life and such as conduce to the good fame of the anthropomorphic divinity, and the activity of the priestly class in the ideal barbarian scheme falls wholly on the hither side of this line. What falls within the range of economics falls below the proper line of solicitude of the priesthood in its best estate. Such apparent exceptions to this rule, as are afforded, for instance, by some of the medieval orders of monks, the members of which actually labored to some useful end, scarcely impugn the rule. These outlying orders of the priestly class are not a cesserdotal element in the full sense of the term, and it is noticeable also that these doubtfully cesserdotal orders, which countenanced their members in earning a living, fell into disrepute through offending the sense of propriety in the communities where they existed. The priest should not put his hand to mechanically productive work, but he should consume in large measure. But even as regards his consumption, it is to be noted that it should take such forms as do not obviously conduce to his own comfort or fullness of life. It should conform to the rules governing vicarious consumption, as explained under that head in an earlier chapter. It is not ordinarily in good form for the priestly class to appear well-fed or in hilarious spirits. Indeed, in many of the more elaborate cults, the injunction against other than vicarious consumption by this class frequently goes so far as to enjoin mortification of the flesh. And even in those modern denominations which have been organized under the latest formulations of the creed in a modern industrial community, it is felt that all levity and avowed zest in the enjoyment of the good things of this world is alien to the true clerical decorum. Whatever suggests that these servants of an invisible master are living a life, not of devotion to their master's good fame, but of application to their own ends, jars harshly on our sensibilities as something fundamentally and eternally wrong. They are a servant class, although being servants of a very exalted master, they rank high in the social scale by virtue of this borrowed light. Their consumption is vicarious consumption, and since, in the advanced cults, their master has no need of material gain, their occupation is vicarious leisure in the full sense. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. It may be added that so far as the laity is assimilated to the priesthood in the respect that they are conceived to be servants of the divinity. So far this imputed vicarious character attaches also to the layman's life. The range of application of this corollary is somewhat wide. It applies especially to such movements for the reform or rehabilitation of the religious life as are of an austere, pietistic, ascetic caste, where the human subject is conceived to hold his life by a direct servile tenure from his spiritual sovereign. That is to say, where the institution of the priesthood lapses, or where there is an exceptionally lively sense of the immediate and masterful presence of the divinity in the affairs of life, there the layman is conceived to stand in an immediate servile relation to the divinity, and his life is construed to be a performance of vicarious leisure directed to the enhancement of his master's repute. In such cases of reversion there is a return to the unmediated relation of subservience, as the dominant fact of the devout attitude. The emphasis is thereby thrown on an austere and discomforting vicarious leisure to the neglect of conspicuous consumption as a means of grace. End of second part of chapter 12, recording by Matthew Wester. CHAPTER XII A doubt will present itself as to the full legitimacy of this characterization of the sacerdotal scheme of life on the ground that a considerable proportion of the modern priesthood departs from the scheme in many details. The scheme does not hold good for the clergy of those denominations which have in some measure diverged from the old established schedule of beliefs or observances. These take thought, at least ostensibly or permissively, for the temporal welfare of the laity as well as for their own. Their manner of life, not only in the privacy of their own household but often, even before the public, does not differ in an extreme degree from that of secular-minded persons, either in its ostensible austerity or in the archaism of its apparatus. This is truest for those denominations that have wandered the farthest. To this objection it is to be said that we have here to do not with a discrepancy in the theory of sacerdotal life but with an imperfect conformity to the scheme on the part of this body of clergy. They are but a partial and imperfect representative of the priesthood and must not be taken as exhibiting the sacerdotal scheme of life in an authentic and competent manner. The clergy of the sects and denominations might be characterized as a half-cast priesthood or a priesthood in process of becoming or of reconstitution. Such a priesthood may be expected to show the characteristics of the sacerdotal office only as blended and obscured with alien motives and traditions, due to the disturbing presence of other factors than those of animism and status in the purposes of the organizations to which this non-conforming fraction of the priesthood belongs. Well may be taken direct to the taste of any person with a discriminating and cultivated sense of the sacerdotal proprieties or to the prevalent sense of what constitutes clerical decorum in any community at all accustomed to think or to pass criticism on what a clergyman may or may not do without blame. Even in the most extremely secularized denominations there is some sense of a distinction that should be observed between the sacerdotal and the lay scheme of life. There is no person of sensibility but feels that where the members of this denominational or sectarian clergy depart from traditional usage in the direction of a less austere or less archaic demeanor and apparel they are departing from the ideal of priestly decorum. There is probably no community and no sect within the range of the western culture in which the bounds of permissible indulgence are not drawn appreciably closer for the incumbent of the priestly office than for the common layman. If the priest's own sense of sacerdotal propriety does not effectively impose a limit the prevalent sense of the proprieties on the part of the community will commonly assert itself so obtrusively as to lead to his conformity or his retirement from office. Few if any members of any body of clergy it may be added would avowedly seek an increase of salary for Gaines' sake and if such avowal were openly made by a clergyman it would be found obnoxious to the sense of propriety among his congregation. It may also be noted in this connection that no one but the scoffers and the very obtuse are not instinctively grieved inwardly at a jest from the pulpit and that there are none whose respect for their pastor does not suffer through any mark of levity on his part in any conjuncture of life except it be levity of a palpably histrionic kind, a constrained unbending of dignity. The diction proper to the sanctuary and to the priestly office should also carry little if any suggestion of effective everyday life and should not draw upon the vocabulary of modern trade or industry. Likewise, one sense of the proprieties is readily offended by two detailed and intimate to handling of industrial and other purely human questions at the hands of the clergy. There is a certain level of generality below which a cultivated sense of the proprieties in a homilectical discourse will not permit a well bred clergyman to decline in his discussion of temporal interests. These matters that are of human and secular consequence simply should properly be handled with such a degree of generality and aloofness as may imply that the speaker represents a master whose interest in secular affairs goes only so far as to permissively countenance them. It is further to be noticed that the non-conforming sects and variants whose priesthood is here under discussion vary among themselves in the degree of their conformity to the ideal scheme of sacerdotal life. In a general way it will be found that the divergence in this respect is widest in the case of the relatively young denominations and especially in the case of such of the newer denominations as have chiefly a lower middle class constituency. They commonly show a large admixture of humanitarian, philanthropic or other motives which cannot be classed as expressions of the devotional attitude such as the desire of learning or of conviviality which enter largely into the effective interests shown by members of these organizations. The non-conforming or sectarian movements have commonly proceeded from a mixture of motives some of which are at variance with that sense of status on which the priestly office rests. Sometimes indeed the motive has been in good part a revulsion against a system of status where this is the case the institution of the priesthood has broken down in the transition at least partially. The spokesman of such an organization is at the outset a servant and representative of the organization rather than a member of a special priestly class and the spokesman of a divine master and it is only by a process of gradual specialization that in succeeding generations this spokesman regains the position of priest with a full investiture of sacerdotal authority and with its accompanying austere archaic and vicarious manner of life. The like is true of the breakdown and reintegration of devout ritual after such a revulsion the priestly office the scheme of sacerdotal life and the schedule of devout observances are rehabilitated only gradually insensibly and with more or less variation in details as a persistent human sense of devout propriety reasserts its primacy in questions touching the interest in the Printer natural and it may be added as the organization increases in wealth and so acquires more of the point of view and the habits of thought of a leisure class beyond the priestly class and ranged in an ascending hierarchy ordinarily comes a superhuman vicarious leisure class of saints angels etc. or their equivalents in the ethnic cults these rise in grade one above another according to elaborate system of status the principle of status runs through the entire hierarchical system both visible and invisible the good fame of these several orders of the supernatural hierarchy also commonly requires a certain tribute of vicarious consumption and vicarious leisure in many cases they accordingly have devoted to their service suborders of attendance or dependence who perform a vicarious leisure for them after much the same fashion as was found in an earlier chapter to be true of the dependent leisure class under the patriarchal system it may not appear without reflection how these devout observances and the peculiarity of temperament which they imply or the consumption of goods and services which is comprised in the cult stand related to the leisure class of a modern community or to the economic motives of which that class is the exponent in the modern scheme of life to this end a summary review of certain facts bearing on this relation will be useful it appears from an earlier passage in this discussion that for the purpose of the collective life of today especially so far as concerns the industrial efficiency of the modern community the characteristic traits of the devout temperament are a hindrance rather than a help it should accordingly be found that the modern industrial life tends selectively to eliminate these traits of human nature from the spiritual constitution of the classes that are immediately engaged in the industrial process it should hold true approximately that devoutness is declining or tending to obsolescence among the members of what may be called the effective industrial community at the same time it should appear that this aptitude or habit survives in appreciably greater vigor among those classes which do not immediately or primarily enter into the community's life process as an industrial factor it has already been pointed out that these latter classes which live by rather than in the industrial process are roughly comprised under two categories one the leisure class proper which is shielded from the stress of the economic situation and two the indigent classes including the lower class delinquents which are unduly exposed to the stress in the case of the former class and archaic habit of mind persists because no effectual economic pressure constraints this class to an adaptation of its habits of thought to the changing situation while in the latter the reason for a failure to adjust their habits of thought to the altered requirements of industrial efficiency is in nutrition absence of such surplus of energy as is needed in order to make the adjustment with facility together with a lack of opportunity to acquire and become habituated to the modern point of view the trend of the selective process runs in much the same direction in both cases from the point of view which the modern industrial life inculcates phenomena are habitually subsumed under the quantitative relation of mechanical sequence the indigent classes not only fall short of the modicum of leisure necessary in order to appropriate and assimilate the more recent generalizations of science which this point of view involves but they also ordinarily stand in such a relation of personal dependence or subservience to their pecuniary superiors as materially to retard their emancipation from habits of thought proper to the regime of status the result is that these classes in some measure retain that general habit of mind the chief expression of which is a strong sense of personal status and of which devoutness is one feature in the older communities of the European culture the hereditary leisure class together with the mass of the indigent population are given to devout observances in an appreciably higher degree than the average of the industrious middle class wherever a considerable class of the latter character exists but in some of these countries the two categories of conservative humanity named above comprise virtually the whole population where these two classes greatly preponderate their bent shapes popular sentiment to such an extent as to bear down any possible divergent tendency in the inconsiderable middle class and imposes a devout attitude upon the whole community this must of course not be construed to say that such communities or such classes as are exceptionally prone to devout observances tend to conform in any exceptional degree to the specifications of any code of morals that we may be accustomed to associate with this or that confession of faith a large measure of the devout habit of mind need not carry with it a strict observance of the injunctions of the decalogue or of the common law indeed it is becoming somewhat of a common place with observers of criminal life in European communities that the criminal and disillute classes are if anything rather more devout and more naively so than the average of the population it is among those who constitute the pecuniary middle class and the body of law abiding citizens that a relative exemption from the devotional attitude is to be looked for those who best appreciate the merits of the higher creeds and observances would object to all this and say that the devoutness of the low class delinquents is a spurious or at the best a superstitious devoutness and the point is no doubt well taken and goes directly and cogently to the purpose intended but for the purpose of the present inquiry these extra economic extra psychological distinctions must perforce be neglected however valid and however decisive they may be for the purpose for which they are made what has actually taken place with regard to class emancipation from the habit of devout observance is shown by the latter day complaint of the clergy that the churches are losing the sympathy of the artisan classes and are losing their hold upon them at the same time it is currently believed that the middle class commonly so-called is also falling away in the cordiality of its support of the church especially so far as regards the adult male portion of that class these are currently recognized phenomena and it might seem that a simple reference to these facts should sufficiently substantiate the general position outlined such an appeal to the general phenomena of popular church attendance and church membership may be sufficiently convincing for the proposition here advanced but it will still be to the purpose to trace in some detail the course of events and the particular forces which have wrought this change in the spiritual attitude of the more advanced industrial communities of today it will serve to illustrate the manner in which economic causes work towards a secularization of men's habits of thought in this respect the american community should afford an exceptionally convincing illustration since this community has been the least trampled by external circumstances of any equally important industrial aggregate after making due allowance for exceptions and sporadic departures from the normal the situation here at the present time may be summarized quite briefly as a general rule the classes that are low in economic efficiency or in intelligence or both are peculiarly devout as for instance the negro population of the south much of the lower class foreign population much of the rural population especially in those sections which are backward in education in the stage of development of the air industry or in respect of their industrial contact with the rest of the community so also such fragments as we possess of a specialized or hereditary indigent class or of a segregated criminal or dissolute class although among these latter the devout habit of mind is apt to take the form of a naive animistic belief in luck and in the efficacy of shamanistic practices perhaps more frequently than it takes the form of a formal adherence to any accredited creed the artisan class on the other hand is notoriously falling away from the accredited anthropomorphic creeds and from all devout observances this class is in a special degree exposed to the characteristic intellectual and spiritual stress of modern organized industry which requires a constant recognition of the undisguised phenomena of impersonal matter of fact sequence and an unreserved conformity to the law of cause and effect this class is at the same time not underfed nor overworked to such an extent as to leave no margin of energy for the work of adaptation the case of the lower or doubtful leisure class in america the middle class commonly so-called is somewhat peculiar it differs in respect of its devotional life from its european counterpart but it differs in degree and method rather than in substance the churches still have the pecuniary support of this class although the creeds to which the class adheres with the greatest facility are relatively poor in anthropomorphic content at the same time the effective middle class congregation tends in many cases more or less remotely perhaps to become the congregation of women and minors there is an appreciable lack of devotional fervor among the adult males of the middle class although to a considerable extent there survives among them a certain complacent reputable ascent to the outlines of the accredited creed under which they were born their everyday life is carried on in a more or less close contact with the industrial process and of third part of chapter 12 recording by matthew westra section 31 of the theory of the leisure class this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org recording by matthew westra the theory of the leisure class by thurston veblen fourth part of chapter 12 devout observances this peculiar sexual differentiation which tends to delegate devout observances to the women and their children is due at least in part to the fact that the middle class women are in great measure a vicarious leisure class the same is true in a less degree of the women of the lower artisan classes they live under a regime of status handed down from an earlier stage of industrial development and thereby they preserve a frame of mind and habits of thought which incline them to an archaic view of things generally at the same time they stand in no such direct organic relation to the industrial process at large as would tend strongly to break down those habits of thought which for the modern industrial purpose are obsolete that is to say the peculiar devoutness of women is a particular expression of that conservatism which the women of civilized communities owe in a great measure to their economic position for the modern man the patriarchal relation of status is by no means a dominant feature of life but for the women on the other hand and for the upper middle class women especially confined as they are by prescription and by economic circumstances to their domestic sphere this relation is the most real and most formative factor of life hence a habit of mind favorable to devout observances and to the interpretation of the facts of life generally in terms of personal status the logic and the logical processes of her everyday domestic life are carried over into the realm of the supernatural and the woman finds herself at home and content in a range of ideas which to the man are in great measure alien and imbecile still the men of this class are also not devoid of piety although it is commonly not piety of an aggressive or exuberant kind the men of the upper middle class commonly take a more complacent attitude towards devout observances than the men of the artisan class this may perhaps be explained in part by saying that what is true of the women of the class is true to a less extent also of the men they are to an appreciable extent a sheltered class and the patriarchal relation of status which still persists in their conjugal life and in their habitual use of servants may also act to conserve an archaic habit of mind and may exercise a retarding influence upon the process of secularization which their habits of thought are undergoing the relations of the american middle class men to the economic community however are usually pretty close and exacting although it may be remarked by the way and in qualification that their economic activity frequently also partakes in some degree of the patriarchal or quasi predatory character the occupations which are in good repute among this class and which have most to do with shaping the class habits of thought are the pecuniary occupations which have been spoken of in a similar connection in an earlier chapter there is a good deal of the relation of arbitrary command and submission and not a little of shrewd practice remotely akin to predatory fraud all this belongs on the plane of life of the predatory barbarian to whom a devotional attitude is habitual and in addition to this the devout observances also command themselves to this class on the ground of reputability but this latter incentive to piety deserves treatment by itself and will be spoken of presently there is no hereditary leisure class of any consequence in the american community except in the south this southern leisure class is somewhat given to devout observances more so than any class of corresponding pecuniary standing in other parts of the country it is also well known that the creeds of the south are of a more old-fashioned cast than their counterparts in the north corresponding to this more archaic devotional life of the south is the lower industrial development of that section the industrial organization of the south is at present and especially it has been until quite recently of a more primitive character than that of the american community taken as a whole it approaches nearer to handicraft in the paucity and rudeness of its mechanical appliances and there is more of the element of mastery and subservience it may also be noted that owing to the peculiar economic circumstances of this section the greater devoutness of the southern population both white and black is correlated with a scheme of life which in many ways recalls the barbarian stages of industrial development among this population offenses of an archaic character also are and have been relatively more prevalent and are less deprecated than they are elsewhere as for example duels brawls feuds drunkenness horse racing cockfighting gambling male sexual incontinence evidenced by the considerable number of new lottoes there is also a livelier sense of honor an expression of sportsmanship and a derivative of predatory life as regards the wealthier class of the north the american leisure class in the best sense of the term it is to begin with scarcely possible to speak of an hereditary devotional attitude this class is of too recent growth to be possessed of a well-formed transmitted habit in this respect or even of a special home grown tradition still it may be noted in passing that there is a perceptible tendency among this class to give in at least a nominal and apparently something of a real adherence to some one of the accredited creeds also weddings funerals and the like honorific events among this class are pretty uniformly solemnized with some a special degree of religious circumstance it is impossible to say how far this adherence to a creed is a bona fide reversion to a devout habit of mind and how far it is to be classed as a case of protected mimicry assumed for the purpose of an outward assimilation to cannons of reputability borrowed from foreign ideals something of a substantial devotional propensity seems to be present to judge especially by the somewhat peculiar degree of ritualistic observance which is in process of development in the upper class cults there is a tendency perceptible among the upper class worshipers to affiliate themselves with those cults which lay relatively great stress on ceremonial and on the spectacular accessories of worship and in the churches in which an upper class membership predominates there is at the same time a tendency to accentuate the realistic at the cost of the intellectual features in the service and in the apparatus of the devout observances this holds true even where the church in question belongs to a denomination with a relatively slight general development of ritual and paraphernalia this peculiar development of the ritualistic element is no doubt due in part to a predilection for conspicuously wasteful spectacles but it probably also in part indicates something of the devotional attitude of the worshipers so far as the latter is true it indicates a relatively archaic form of the devotional habit the predominance of spectacular effects in devout observances is noticeable in all devout communities at a relatively primitive stage of culture and with a slight intellectual development it is especially characteristic of the barbarian culture here there is pretty uniformly present in the devout observances a direct appeal to the emotions through all the avenues of sense and a tendency to return to this naive sensational method of appeal is unmistakable in the upper class churches of today it is perceptible in a less degree in the cults which claim the allegiance of the lower leisure class and of the middle classes there is a reversion to the use of colored lights and brilliant spectacles a freer use of symbols orchestral music and incense and one may even detect in processionals and recessionals and in richly varied genuflectional evolutions an incipient reversion to so antique an accessory of worship as the sacred dance this reversion to spectacular observances is not confined to the upper class cults although it finds its best exemplification and its highest accentuation in the higher pecuniary and social altitudes the cults of the lower class devout portion of the community such as the southern negroes and the backward foreign elements of the population of course also show a strong inclination to ritual symbolism and spectacular effects as might be expected from the antecedents and the cultural level of those classes with these classes the prevalence of ritual and anthropomorphism are not so much a matter of version as of continued development out of the past but the use of ritual and related features of devotion are also spreading in other directions in the early days of the American community the prevailing denominations started out with a ritual and paraphernalia of an austere simplicity but it is a matter of familiar to everyone that in the course of time these denominations have in a varying degree adopted much of the spectacular elements which they once renounced in a general way this development has gone hand in hand with the growth of the wealth and the ease of life of the worshipers and has reached its fullest expression among those classes which grade highest in wealth and repute the causes to which this pecuniary stratification of devoutnesses do have already been indicated in a general way in speaking of class differences in habits of thought class differences as regards devoutness are but a special expression of a generic fact the lax allegiance of the lower middle class or what may broadly be called the failure of filial piety among this class is chiefly perceptible among the town populations engaged in the mechanical industries in a general way one does not at the present time look for a blameless filial piety among those classes whose employment approaches that of the engineer and the mechanition these mechanical employments are in a degree a modern fact the handicraftsmen of earlier times who served an industrial end of a character similar to that now served by the mechanition were not similarly refractory under the discipline of devoutness the habitual activity of the men engaged in these branches of industry has greatly changed as regards its intellectual discipline since the modern industrial processes have come into vogue and the discipline to which the mechanition is exposed in his daily employment affects the methods and standards of his thinking also on topics which lie outside his everyday work familiarity with the highly organized and highly impersonal industrial processes of the present acts to derange the animistic habits of thought the workman's office is becoming more and more exclusively that of discretion and supervision in a process of mechanical dispassionate sequences so long as the individual is the chief and typical prime mover in the process so long as the obtrusive feature of the industrial process is the dexterity and force of the individual handicraftsmen so long as the habit of interpreting phenomena in terms of personal motive and propensity suffers no such considerable and consistent derangement through facts as to lead to its elimination but under the later developed industrial processes when the prime movers and the contrivances through which they work are of an impersonal non-individual character the grounds of generalization habitually present in the workman's mind and the point of view from which he habitually apprehends phenomena is an enforced cognizance of matter-of-fact sequence the result so far as concerns the workman's life of faith is a proclivity to undevout skepticism it appears then that the devout habit of mind attains its best development under a relatively archaic culture the term devout being of course here used in its anthropological sense simply and not as implying anything with respect to the spiritual attitude so characterized beyond the fact of a proneness to devout observances it appears also that this devout attitude marks a type of human nature which is more in consonance with the predatory mode of life than with the later developed more consistently and organically industrial life process of the community it is in large measure an expression of the archaic habitual sense of personal status the relation of mastery and subservience and it therefore fits into the industrial scheme of the predatory and the quasi-peaceable culture but does not fit into the industrial scheme of the present it also appears that this habit persists with greatest tenacity among those classes in the modern communities whose everyday life is most remote from the mechanical processes of industry and which are the most conservative also in other respects while for those classes that are habitually in immediate contact with modern industrial processes and whose habits of thought are therefore exposed to the constraining force of technological necessities that animistic interpretation of phenomena and that respect of persons on which devout observance proceeds are in process of obsolescence and also as bearing especially on the present discussion it appears that the devout habit to some extent progressively gains in scope and elaboration among those classes in the modern communities to whom wealth and leisure accrue in the most pronounced degree in this as in other relations the institution of a leisure class acts to conserve and even to rehabilitate that archaic type of human nature and those elements of the archaic culture which the industrial evolution of society in its later stages acts to eliminate end of chapter 12 recording by Matthew Westra survivals of the non-invidious interests in an increasing proportion as time goes on the anthropomorphic cult with its code of devout observations suffers a progressive disintegration through the stress of economic exigencies and the decay of the system of status as this disintegration proceeds there come to be associated and blended with the devout attitude certain other motives and impulses that are not always of an anthropomorphic origin nor traceable to the habit of personal subservience not all of these subsidiary impulses that blend with the habit of devoutness in the later devotional life are all together congruous with the devout attitude or with their anthropomorphic apprehension of the sequence and phenomenon the origin being not the same their action upon the scheme of devout life is also not in the same direction in many ways they traverse the underlying norm of subservience or vicarious life to which the code of devout observations and the ecclesiastical and sacerdotal institutions are to be traced as their substantial basis through the presence of these alien motives the social and industrial regime of status gradually disintegrates and the canon of personal subservience loses the support derived from an unbroken tradition extraneous habits and proclivities encroach upon the field of action occupied by this canon and it presently comes about that the ecclesiastical and sacerdotal structures are partially converted to other uses in some measure alien to the purposes of the scheme of devout life as it stood in the days of the most vigorous and characteristic development of the priesthood among these alien motives which affect the devout scheme in its later growth may be mentioned the motives of charity and of social good fellowship or conviviality or in more general terms the various expressions of the sense of human solidarity and sympathy it may be added that these extraneous uses of the ecclesiastical structure contribute materially to its survival in name and form even among people who may be ready to give up the substance of it a still more characteristic and more pervasive alien element in the motives which have gone to formally uphold the scheme of devout life is that non-reverent sense of aesthetic congruity with the environment which left as a residue of the latter day act of worship after elimination of its anthropomorphic content this has done good service for the maintenance of the sacerdotal institution through blending with the motive of subservience this sense of impulse of aesthetic congruity is not primarily of an economic character but it has a considerable indirect effect in shaping the habit of mind of the individual for economic purposes in the later stages of industrial development its most perceptible effect in this regard goes in the direction of mitigating the somewhat pronounced self-regarding bias that has been transmitted by tradition from the earlier more competent phases of the regime of status the economic bearing of this impulse is therefore seen to transverse that of the devout attitude the former goes to qualify if not eliminate the self-regarding bias through sublation of the antithesis or antagonism of self and not self while the latter being an expression of the sense of personal subservience and mastery goes to accentuate this antithesis and to insist upon the divergence between the self-regarding interest and the interests of the generically human life process this non-inviteous residue of the religious life the sense of communion with the environment or with the generic life process as well as the impulse of charity or of sociability act in a pervasive way to shape men's habits of thought for the economic purpose but the action of all this class of proclivities is somewhat vague and their effects are difficult to trace in detail so much seems clear however as that the action of this entire class of motives or aptitudes tends in a direction contrary to the underlying principles of the institution of the leisure class as already formulated the basis of that institution as well as of the anthropomorphic cults associated with it in the cultural development is the habit of invidious comparison and this habit is incongruous for the exercise of the aptitudes now in question the substantial cannons of the leisure class scheme of life are a conspicuous waste of time and substance and withdrawal from the industrial process while the particular aptitudes here in question assert themselves on the economic side in a deprecation of waste and of a futile manner of life and in an impulse to participation in or identification with the life process whether it be on the economic side or in any other of its phases or aspects it is plain that these aptitudes and habits of life to which they give rise where circumstances favor their expression or where they assert themselves in a dominant way run counter to the leisure class scheme of life but it is not clear that life under the leisure class scheme as seen in the later stages of its development tends consistently to the repression of these aptitudes or to exemption from the habits of thought in which they express themselves the positive discipline of the leisure class scheme of life goes pretty much all the other way in its positive discipline by prescription and by selective elimination the leisure class scheme favors the all-pervading and all-dominating primacy of the cannons of waste and invidious comparison at every juncture of life but in its negative effects the tendency of the leisure class discipline is not so unequivocally true to the fundamental cannons of the scheme in its regulation of human activity for the purpose of pecuniary decency the leisure class cannon insists on withdrawal from the industrial process that is to say it inhibits activity in the direction in which the impecunious members of the community habitually put forth their efforts especially in the case of women and more particularly as regards the upper class and upper middle class women of advanced industrial communities this inhibition goes so far as to insist on withdrawal even from the emulative process of accumulation by the quasi predator methods of the pecuniary occupations the pecuniary or the leisure class culture which set out as an emulative variant of the impulse of workmanship is in its latest development beginning to neutralize its own ground by eliminating the habit of invidious comparison in respect of efficiency or even a pecuniary standing on the other hand the fact that members of the leisure class both men and women are to some extent exempt from the necessity of finding a livelihood in the competitive struggle with their fellows makes it possible for members of this class not only to survive but even within bounds to follow their bent in case they are not gifted with the aptitudes which may for success in the competitive struggle that is to say in the latest and fullest development of the institution livelihood of members of this class does not depend on the possession and the unremitting exercise of those aptitudes and are therefore greater in the higher grades of the leisure class than in the general average of a population living under the competitive system in an earlier chapter in discussing the conditions of survival of archaic traits it has appeared that the peculiar position of the leisure class affords exceptionally favorable chances for the survival of traits which characterize the type of human nature proper to and earlier and obsolete cultural stage the class is sheltered from the stress of economic exigencies and is in this sense withdrawn from the rude impact of forces which make for adaptation to the economic situation the survival in the leisure class and under the leisure class scheme of life of traits and types that are reminiscent of the predatory culture has already been discussed these aptitudes and habits have an exceptionally favorable chance of survival under the leisure class regime not only does the sheltered pecuniary position of the leisure class afford a situation favorable to the survival of such individuals as are not gifted with the complement of aptitudes required for surface ability in the modern industrial process but the leisure class canons of reputability at the same time and joined the conspicuous exercise of certain predatory aptitudes the employment in which the predatory aptitudes find exercise serve as an evidence of wealth earth and withdrawal from the industrial process the survival of their predatory traits under the leisure class culture is furthered both negatively through the industrial exemption of the class and positively through the sanction of the leisure class canons of decency with respect to the survival of traits characteristic of the anti-predatory savage culture the case is in some degree different the sheltered position of the leisure class favors the survival also of these traits but the exercise of the aptitudes for peace and good will does not have the affirmative sanction of the code of proprieties individuals gifted with a temperament that is reminiscent of the anti-predatory culture are placed at something of an advantage within the leisure class as compared with similarly gifted individuals outside the class in that they are not under a pecuniary necessity to thwart these aptitudes that make for a non-competitive life but such individuals are still exposed to something of a moral constraint which urges them to disregard these inclinations in that the code of proprieties and joins upon them habits of life based on the predatory aptitudes so long as the system of status remains intact and so long as the leisure class has other lines of non-industrial activity to take to an obvious killing of time and aimless and wasteful fatigation so long no considerable departure from the leisure class scheme of reputable life is to be looked for the occurrence of non-predatory temperament with the class at that stage is to be looked upon as a case of sporadic reversion but the reputable non-industrial outlets for the human propensity to action presently fail through the advance of economic development the disappearance of large game the decline of war the obsolescence of proprietary government and the decay of the priestly office when this happens the situation begins to change human life must seek expression in one direction if it may not in another and if the predatory outlet fails relief is sought elsewhere as indicated above the exemption from pecuniary stress has been carried farther in the case of the leisure class women of the advanced industrial communities than in that of any other considerable group of persons the women may therefore be expected to show a more pronounced reversion to a non-inviteous temperament than the men but there is also among men of the leisure class a perceptible increase in the range and scope of activities that proceed from aptitudes which are not to be classed as self-regarding and the end of which is not an inviteous distinction so for instance the greater number of men who have to do with industry in the way of pecuniarily managing an enterprise take some interest and some pride in seeing that the work is well done and is industrially effective and this even apart from the profit which may result from any improvement of this kind the efforts of commercial clubs and manufacturers organizations in this direction of non-inviteous advancement of industrial efficiency are also well known the tendency to some other than an inviteous purpose in life has worked out in a multitude of organizations the purpose of which is some work of charity or of social amelioration these organizations are often of a quasi religious or pseudo religious character and are participated in by both men and women examples will present themselves in abundance on reflection but for the purpose of indicating the range of the propensities in question and of characterizing them some of the more obvious concrete cases may be cited such for instance are the agitation for temperance and similar social reforms for prison reform for the spread of education for the suppression of vice and for the avoidance of war by arbitration disarmament or other means such are in some measure university settlements neighborhood guilds the various organizations typified by the young men's christian association and young people society for christian endeavor sewing clubs art clubs and even commercial clubs such are also in some slight measure the pecuniary foundations of semi public establishments for charity education for amusement whether they are endowed by wealthy individuals or by contributions collected from persons of smaller means insofar as these establishments are not of a religious character it is of course not intended to say that these efforts proceed entirely from other motives than those of a self-regarding kind what can be claimed is that other motives are present in the common run of cases and that the perceptibly greater prevalence of effort of this kind under the circumstances of the modern industrial life than under the unbroken regime of the principle of status indicates the presence in modern life of an effective skepticism with respect to the full legitimacy of an emulative scheme of life it is a matter of sufficient notoriety to become a commonplace jest that extraneous motives are commonly present among the incentives to this class of work motives of a self-regarding kind and especially the motive of an invidious distinction to such an extent is this true that many ostensible works of disinterested public spirit are no doubt initiated and carried on with a view primarily to enhance the repute or even to the pecuniary gain of their promoters in the case of some considerable groups of organizations or establishments of this kind the invidious motive is apparently the dominant motive both with the initiators of the work and with their supporters this last remark would hold true especially with respect to such works as lend distinction to their doer through large and conspicuous expenditure as for example the foundation of a university or of a public library or museum but it is also and perhaps equally true of the more commonplace work of participation in such organizations these serve to authenticate the pecuniary reputability of their members as well as gratefully to keep them in mind of their superior status by pointing the contrast between themselves and the lower lying humanity in whom the work of amelioration is to be wrought as for example the university settlement which now has some vogue but after all allowances and deductions have been made there is left some remainder of motives of a non-emulative kind the fact itself that distinction or decent good fame is sought by this method is evidence of a prevalent sense of the legitimacy and of the presumptive effectual presence of a non-emulative non-invidious interest a consistent factor in the habits of thought of modern communities and a first part of chapter 13 section 33 of the theory of the leisure class this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Eugene Smith the theory of the leisure class by Thorsten Beblen second part of chapter 13 survivals of the non-invidious interests in all this latter day range of leisure class activities that proceed on the basis of a non-invidious and non-religious interest it is to be noted that the women participate more actively and more persistently than the men except of course in the case of such works as require a large expenditure of means the dependent pecuniary position of the women disables them for work requiring large expenditure as regards the general range of ameliorative work the members of the priesthood or clergy of the less naively devout sects or the secularized denominations are associated with the class of women this is as the theory would have it in other economic relations also this clergy stands in a somewhat equivocal position between the class of women and that of the men engaged in economic pursuits by tradition and by the prevalent sense of the proprieties both the clergy and the women of the well-to-do classes are placed in the position of a vicarious leisure class with both classes the characteristic relation which goes to form the habits of thought of the class is a relation of subservience that is to say an economic relation conceived in personal terms in both classes there is consequently perceptible a special proneness to construe phenomena in terms of personal relation rather than of causal sequence both classes are so inhibited by the canon's decency from the ceremonial unclean processes of the lucrative or productive occupations as to make participation in the industrial life process of today a moral impossibility for them the result of this ceremonial exclusion from productive effort of the vulgar sword is to draft a relatively large share of the energies of the modern feminine and priestly classes into the service of other interests than the self-regarding one the code leaves no alternative direction in which the impulse to purposeful action may find expression the effect of a consistent inhibition on industrially useful activity in the case of the leisure class women shows itself in a restless assertion of the impulse to workmanship in other directions than that of business activity as has been noticed already the everyday life of the well-to-do women and the clergy contains a larger element of status than that of the average of the men especially than that of the men engaged in the modern industrial occupations proper hence the devout attitude survives in a better state of preservation among these classes than among the common run of men in the modern communities hence an appreciable share of the energy which seeks expression in the non lucrative employment among these members of vicarious leisure classes may be expected to eventuate in devout observances and works of piety hence in part the excess of the devout proclivity in women spoken of in the last chapter but it is more to the present point to note the effect of this proclivity in shaping the action and coloring the purposes of the non lucrative movements and organizations here under discussion where this devout coloring is present it lowers the immediate efficiency of the organizations for any economic end to which their efforts may be directed many organizations charitable and ameliorative divide their attention between the devotional and the secular well-being of the people whose interests they aim to further it can scarcely be doubted that if they were to give an equally serious attention and effort undividedly to the secular interests of these people the immediate economic value of their work should be appreciably higher than it is it might of course similarly be said if this were the place to say it that the immediate efficiency of these works of amelioration for the devout might be greater if it were not hampered with the secular motives and aims which are usually present some deduction is to be made from the economic value of this class of non invidious enterprise on account of the intrusion of the devotional interest but there are also deductions to be made on account of the presence of other alien motives which more or less broadly traverse the economic trend of this non emulative expression of the instinct of workmanship to such an extent is this seen to be true on a closer scrutiny that when all is told it may even appear that this general class of enterprises is of an altogether dubious economic value as measured in terms of a fullness or facility of life of the individuals or classes to whose amelioration the enterprise is directed for instance many of the efforts now in reputable vote for the amelioration of the indigent population of large cities are of the nature in great part of a mission of culture it is by this means sought to accelerate the rate of speed at which given elements of the upper class culture find acceptance in the everyday scheme of life of the lower classes the solicitude of settlements for example is in part directed to enhance the industrial efficiency of the poor and to teach them the more adequate utilization of the means at hand but it is also no less consistently directed to the inculcation by precept and example of certain punctilios of upper class propriety in matters and customs the economic substance of these proprieties will commonly be found on scrutiny to be a conspicuous waste of time and goods those good people who go out to humanize the poor are commonly and advisedly extremely scrupulous and silently insistent in matters of decorum and the decencies of life they are commonly persons of an exemplary life and gifted with a tenacious insistence on ceremonial cleanness in the various items of their daily consumption the cultural or civilizing efficacy of this inculcation of correct habits of thought with respect to the consumption of time and commodities is scarcely to be overrated nor is its economic value to the individual who acquires these higher and more reputable ideals inconsiderable under the circumstances of the existing pecuniary culture the reputability and consequently the success of the individual is in great measure dependent on his proficiency in demeanor and methods of consumption that argue habitual waste of time and goods but as regards the ulterior economic bearing of this training in worthier methods of life it is to be said that the effect wrought is in large part a substitution of costlier or less efficient methods of accomplishing the same material results in relations where the material result is the fact of substantial economic value the propaganda of culture is in great part an inculcation of new tastes or rather a new schedule of proprieties which have been adapted to the upper class scheme of life under the guidance of the leisure class formulation of the principles of status and pecuniary decency this new schedule of proprieties is intruded into the lower class scheme of life from the code elaborated by an element of the population whose life lies outside the industrial process and this intrusive schedule can scarcely be expected to fit the exigencies of life and these lower classes more adequately than the schedule already in vogue among them and especially not more adequately than the schedule which they are themselves working out under the stress of modern industrial life all this of course does not question the fact that the proprieties of the substituted schedule are more decorous than those they displace the doubt which presents itself is simply a doubt as to the economic expediency of this work of regeneration that is to say the economic expediency in that immediate and material bearing in which the effects of the change can be ascertained with some degree of confidence and as viewed from the standpoint not of the individual but of the facility of life of the collectivity for an appreciation of the economic expediency of these enterprises of amelioration therefore their effective work is scarcely to be taken at its face value even where the aim of the enterprise is primarily an economic one and where the interest on which it proceeds is in no sense self-regarding or invidious the economic reform brought is largely of the nature of a permutation in the methods of conspicuous waste but something further is to be said with respect to the character of the disinterested motives and cannons of procedure in all work of this class that is affected by the habits of thought characteristic of the pecuniary culture and this further consideration may lead to a further qualification of the conclusions already reached as has been seen in an earlier chapter the cannons of reputability or decency under the pecuniary culture insist on habitual fertility of effort as the mark of a pecuniarily blameless life their results not only a habit of disesteem of useful occupations but their results also what is of more decisive consequence and guiding the action of any organized body of people that lays claim to social good repute there is a tradition which requires that one should not be vulgarly familiar with any of the processes or details that have to do with the material necessities of life one may meritoriously show a quantitative interest in the well-being of the vulgar through subscriptions or through work on managing committees and the like one may perhaps even more meritoriously show solicitude in general and in detail for the cultural welfare of the vulgar in the way of contrivances for elevating their tastes and affording them opportunities for spiritual amelioration but one should not betray an intimate knowledge of the material circumstances of vulgar life or of the habits of thought of the vulgar classes such as would effectively direct the efforts of these organizations to a materially useful end this reluctance to avow an unduly intimate knowledge of the lower class conditions of life in detail of course prevails in very different degrees in different individuals but there is commonly enough of it present collectively in any organization of the kind in question profoundly to influence its course of action by its cumulative action in shaping the usage and precedence of any such body this shrinking from an imputation of unseemly familiarity with vulgar life tends gradually to set aside the initial motives of the enterprise in favor of certain guiding principles of good repute ultimately reducible to terms of pecuniary merit so that in an organization of longstanding the initial motive of furthering the facility of life in these classes comes gradually to be an ostensible motive only and the vulgarly effective work of the organization tends to obsolescence what is true of the efficiency of organizations for non-inviteous work in this respect is true also as regards the work of individuals proceeding on the same motives though it perhaps holds true with more qualification for individuals than for organized enterprises the habit of gauging merit by the leisure class cannons of wasteful expenditure and unfamiliarity with vulgar life whether on the side of production or of consumption is necessarily strong in the individuals who aspire to do some work of public utility and if the individual should forget his station and turn his efforts to vulgar effectiveness the common sense of the community the sense of pecuniary decency would presently reject his work and set him right an example of this is seen in the administration of bequests made by public spirited men for the single purpose at least ostensibly of furthering the facility of human life in some particular respect the objects for which bequests of this class are most frequently made at present are schools libraries hospitals and asylums for the infirm or unfortunate the avowed purpose of the donor in these cases is the amelioration of human life in the particular respect which is named in the bequest but it will be found in a variable rule that in the execution of the work not a little of other motives frequently incompatible with the initial motive is present and determines a particular disposition eventually made of a good share of the means which have been set apart by the bequest certain funds for instance may have been set apart as a foundation for a foundling asylum or a retreat for invalids a diversion of expenditure to honorific waste in such cases is not uncommon enough to cause surprise or even to raise a smile an appreciable share of the funds is spent in the construction of the edifice faced with some aesthetically objectionable but expensive stone covered with grotesque and incongruous details and designed in its battlemented walls and turrets and its massive portals and strategic approaches to suggest certain barbaric methods of warfare the interior of the structure shows the same pervasive guidance of the cannons of conspicuous waste and predatory exploit the windows for instance to go no farther into detail are placed with a view to impress their pecuniary excellence upon the chance beholder from the outside rather than with a view to effectiveness for their ostensible end and the convenience or comfort of the beneficiaries within and the detail of interior arrangement is required to conform itself as best it may to this alien but imperious requirement of pecuniary beauty in all this of course it is not to be presumed that the donor would have found fault or that he would have done otherwise if he had taken control in person it appears that in those cases where such a personal direction is exercised where the enterprise is conducted by direct expenditure and superintendents instead of by bequest the aims and methods of management are not different in this respect nor with the beneficiaries or the outside observers whose ease or vanity are not immediately touched be pleased with a different disposition of the funds it would suit no one to have the enterprise conducted with a view directly to the most economical and effective use of the means at hand for the initial material end of the foundation all concerned whether their interest is immediate and self-regarding or contemplative only agree that some considerable share of the expenditure should go to the higher or spiritual needs derived from the habit of an invidious comparison in predatory exploit and pecuniary waste but this only goes to say that the cannons of emulative and pecuniary reputability so far pervade the common sense of the community as to permit no escape or evasion even in the case of an enterprise which ostensibly proceeds entirely on the basis of a non-invidious interest it may even be that the enterprise owes its honorific virtue as a means of enhancing the donor's good repute to the imputed presence of this non-invidious motive but that does not hinder the invidious interest from guiding the expenditure the effectual presence of motives of an emulative or invidious origin in non-emulative works of this kind might be shown at length and with detail in any one of the classes of enterprise spoken of above where these honorific details occur in such cases they commonly masquerade under designations that belong in the field of the aesthetic ethical or economic interest these special motives derived from the standards and cannons of the pecuniary culture act surreptitiously to divert effort of a non-invidious kind from effective service without disturbing the agent's sense of good intention or protruding upon his consciousness the substantial futility of his work their effect might be traced through the entire range of that schedule of non-invidious millerative enterprise that is so considerable a feature and especially so conspicuous a feature in the overt scheme of life of the well to do but the theoretical bearing is perhaps clear enough and may require no further illustration especially as some detailed attention will be given to one of these lines of enterprise the establishments for the higher learning in another connection under the circumstances of the sheltered situation in which the leisure class is placed there seems therefore to be something of a reversion to the range of non-invidious impulses that characterizes the anti-predatory savage culture the reversion comprises both the sense of workmanship and the proclivity to indolence and good fellowship but in the modern scheme of life canons of conduct based on pecuniary or invidious merit stand in the way of a free exercise of these impulses and the dominant presence of these canons of conduct goes far to divert such efforts as are made on the basis of the non-invidious interest to the service of that invidious interest on which the pecuniary culture rests the canons of pecuniary decency are reducible for the present purpose to the principles of waste futility and ferocity the requirements of decency are imperiously present in millerative enterprise as in other lines of conduct and exercise a selective surveillance over the details of conduct and management in any enterprise by guiding and adapting the method in detail these canons of decency go far to make all non-invidious aspiration or effort nuggetory the pervasive and personal uneager principle of futility is at hand from day to day and works obstructively to hinder the effectual expression of so much of the surviving anti-predatory aptitudes as is to be classed under the instinct of workmanship but its presence does not preclude the transmission of those aptitudes for the continued recurrence of an impulse to find expression for them and of second part of chapter 13 section 34 of the theory of the leisure class this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Eugene Smith the theory of the leisure class by Thorstein Veblen third part of chapter 13 survivals of the non-invidious interests in the later and farther development of the pecuniary culture the requirement of withdrawal from the industrial process in order to avoid social odium is carried so far as to comprise abstention from the emulative employments at this event stage the pecuniary culture negatively favors the assertion of the non-invidious propensities by relaxing the stress laid on the merit of emulative predatory or pecuniary occupations as compared with those of an industrial or productive kind as was noticed above the requirement of such withdrawal from all employment that is of human use applies more rigorously to the upper class women than to any other class unless the priesthood of certain cults might be cited as an exception perhaps more apparent than real to this rule the reason for the more extreme insistence on a feudal life for this class of women than for the men of the same pecuniary and social grade lies in their being not only an upper grade leisure class but also at the same time a vicarious leisure class there is in their case a double ground for a consistent withdrawal from useful effort it has been well and repeatedly said by popular writers and speakers who reflect the common sense of intelligent people on questions of social structure and function that the position of woman in any community is the most striking index of the level of culture attained by the community and it might be added by any given class in the community this remark is perhaps true or as regards the stage of economic development than as regards development in any other respect at the same time a position assigned to the woman in the accepted scheme of life in any community or under any culture is in a very great degree an expression of traditions which have been shaped by the circumstances of an earlier phase of development and which have been but partially adapted to the existing economic circumstances or to the existing exigencies of temperament and habits of mind by which the women living under this modern economic situation are actuated the fact has already been remarked upon incidentally in the course of the discussion of the growth of economic institutions generally and in particular in speaking of vicarious leisure and of dress that the position of women in the modern economic scheme is more widely and more consistently at variance with the promptings of the instinctive workmanship than is the position of the men of the same classes it is also apparently true that the woman's temperament includes a larger share of this instinct that approves peace and disapproves futility it is therefore not a fortuitous circumstance that the women of modern industrial communities show a livelier sense of the discrepancy between the accepted scheme of life and the exigencies of the economic situation the several phases of the woman question have brought out in intelligible form the extent to which the life of women in modern society and in the polite circles especially is regulated by a body of common sense formulated under the economic circumstances of an earlier phase of development it is still felt that woman's life in its civil economic and social bearing is essentially and normally a vicarious life the merit or demerit of which is in the nature of things to be imputed to some other individual who stands in some relation of ownership or tunelage to the woman so for instance any action on the part of a woman which traverses an injunction of the accepted schedule of proprieties is felt to reflect immediately upon the honor of the man whose woman she is there may of course be some sense of incongruity in the mind of anyone passing an opinion of this kind on the woman's frailty or perversity but the common sense judgment of the community in such matters is after all delivered without much hesitation and few men would question the legitimacy of their sense of an outraged tutelage in any case that might arise on the other hand relatively little discredit attaches to a woman through the evil deeds of the man with whom her life is associated the good and beautiful scheme of life in that is to say the scheme to which we are habituated assigns to the woman a sphere ancillary to the activity of the man and it is felt that any departure from the traditions of her assigned round of duties is unwomanly if the question is as to civil rights or the suffrage our common sense in the matter that is to say the logical deliverance of our general scheme of life upon the point in question says that the woman should be represented in the body politic and before the law not immediately in her own person but through the mediation of the head of the household to which he belongs it is unfeminine in her to aspire to a self-directing self-centered life and our common sense tells us that her direct participation in the affairs of the community civil or industrial is a menace to that social order which expresses our habits of thought as they have been formed under the guidance of the traditions of the puniary culture quote all this fume and froth of emancipating women from the slavery of man and so on is to use the chaste and expressive language of elizabeth katie stan inversely utter rot the social relations of the sexes are fixed by nature our entire civilization that is whatever is good in it is based on the home end quote the home is the household with a male head this view but commonly expressed even more chastely is the prevailing view of the woman's status not only among the common run of men of civilized communities but among the women as well women have a very alert sense of what the scheme of proprieties requires and while it is true that many of them are ill at ease under the details which the code imposes there are few who do not recognize that the existing moral order of necessity and by the divine right of prescription places the woman in a position ancillary to the man in the last analysis according to her own sense of what is good and beautiful the woman's life is and in theory must be an expression of the man's life at the second remove but in spite of this pervading sense of what is the good and natural place for the woman there is also perceptible an incipient development of sentiment to the effect that this whole arrangement of tutelage and vicarious life and imputation of merit and demerit is somehow a mistake or at least that even if it may be a natural growth and a good arrangement in its time and place and in spite of its patent aesthetic value still it does not adequately serve the more everyday ends of life in a modern industrial community even that large and substantial body of well-bred upper and middle class women to whose dispassionate maternally sense of the traditional proprieties this relation of status commends itself as fundamentally and eternally right even these whose attitude is conservative commonly find some slight discrepancy in detail between things as they are and things as they should be in this respect but that less manageable body of modern women who by force of youth education or temperament are in some degree out of touch with the traditions of status received from the barbarian culture and in whom there is perhaps an undue reversion to the impulse of self-expression and workmanship these are touched with a sense of grievance too vivid to leave them at rest in this new woman movement as these blind and incoherent efforts to rehabilitate the woman's preglacial standing have been named there are at least two elements discernible both of which are of an economic character these two elements or motives are expressed by the double watchword emancipation and work each of these words is recognized to stand for something in the way of a widespread sense of grievance the prevalence of the sentiment is recognized even by people who do not see that there is any real ground for grievance in the situation as it stands today it is among the women of the well-to-do classes in the communities which are farthest advanced in industrial development that this sense of grievance to be redressed is most alive and finds most frequent expression that is to say in other words there is a demand more or less serious for emancipation from all relation of status tutelage or vicarious life and the revulsion asserts itself especially among the class of women upon whom the scheme of life handed down from the regime of status imposes with least litigation a vicarious life and in those communities whose economic development has departed farthest from the circumstances to which this traditional scheme is adapted the demand comes from that portion of womankind which is excluded by the cannons of good repute from all effectual work and which is closely reserved for a life of leisure and conspicuous consumption more than one critic of this new woman movement has misapprehended its motive the case of the american new woman has lately been summed up with some warmth by a popular observer of social phenomena quote she is petted by her husband the most devoted and hard-working of husbands in the world she is the superior of her husband in education and in almost every respect she is surrounded by the most numerous and delicate attentions yet she is not satisfied the anglo-saxon new woman is the most ridiculous production of modern times and destined to be the most ghastly failure of the century end quote apart from the deprecation perhaps well placed which is contained in this presentment it adds nothing but obscurity to the woman question the grievance of the new woman is made up of those things which this typical characterization of the movement urges as reasons why she should be content she is petted and is permitted or even required to consume largely and conspicuously vicariously for her husband or other natural guardian she's exempted or debarred from boldly useful employment in order to perform leisure vicariously for the good repute of her natural pecuniary guardian these offices are the conventional marks of the unfree at the same time that they are incompatible with the human impulse to purposeful activity but the woman is endowed with her share which there is reason to believe is more than an even share of the instinctive workmanship to which futility of life or expenditure is obnoxious she must unfold her life activity in response to the direct unmediated stimuli of the economic environment with which he is in contact the impulse is perhaps stronger upon the woman than upon the man to live her own life in her own way and to enter the industrial process of the community at something nearer than the second remove so long as the woman's place is consistently that of a drudge she is in the average of cases fairly contented with her lot she not only has something tangible and purposeful to do but she has also no time or thought to spare for a rebellious assertion of such human propensity to self-direction as she has inherited and after the stage of universal female drudgery has passed and a vicarious leisure without strenuous application becomes the accredited employment of the women of the well-to-do classes the prescriptive force of the canon of pecuniary decency which requires the observance of ceremonial futility on their part will long preserve high-minded women from any sentimental leaning to self-direction in a quote sphere of usefulness then quote this is especially true during the earlier phases of the pecuniary culture while the leisure of the leisure class is still in great measure a predatory activity an act of assertion of mastery in which there is enough of tangible purpose of an invidious kind to admit of its being taken seriously as an employment to which one may without shame put one's hand this condition of things has obviously lasted well down into the present in some communities it continues to hold to a different extent for different individuals varying with the vividness of the sense of status and with the feebleness of the impulse to workmanship with which the individual is endowed but where the economic structure of the community has so far outgrown the scheme of life based on the status that the relation of personal subservience is no longer felt to be the sole natural human relation there the ancient habit of purposeful activity will begin to assert itself in the less conformable individuals against the more recent relatively superficial relatively ephemeral habits and views which the predatory and the pecuniary culture have contributed to our scheme of life these habits and views begin to lose their coercive force for the community or the class in question so soon as the habit of mine and the views of life due to the predatory and the quasi-peaceable discipline cease to be in fairly close accord with the later developed economic situation this is evident in the case of the industrious classes of modern communities for them the leisure class scheme of life has lost much of its binding force especially as regards the element of status but it is also visibly being verified in the case of the upper classes though not in the same manner the habits derived from the predatory and quasi-peaceable culture are relatively ephemeral variants of certain underlying propensities and mental characteristics of the race which it owes to the protracted discipline of the earlier proto-anthropoid cultural stage of peaceable relatively undifferentiated economic life carried on in contact with a relatively simple and invariable material environment when the habits super induced by the emulative method of life have ceased to enjoy the section of existing economic exigencies a process of disintegration sets in whereby the habits of thought of more recent growth and of a less generic character to some extent yield the ground before the more ancient and more pervading spiritual characteristics of the race in a sense then the new woman movement marks a reversion to a more generic type of human character or to a less differentiated expression of human nature it is a type of human nature which is to be characterized as proto-anthropoid and as regards the substance if not the form of its dominant traits it belongs to a cultural stage that may be classed as possibly sub-human the particular movement or evolution feature in question of course shares this characterization with the rest of the later social development insofar as this social development shows evidence of a reversion to the spiritual attitude that characterizes the earlier undifferentiated stage of economic revolution such evidence of a general tendency to reversion from the dominance of the invidious interest is not entirely wanting although it is neither plentiful nor unquestionably convincing the general decay of the sense of status in modern industrial communities goes some way as evidence in this direction and the perceptible return to a disapproval of utility in human life and a disapproval of such activities as serve only the individual gain at the cost of the collectivity or at the cost of other social groups is evidence to a like effect there is a perceptible tendency to deprecate the infliction of pain as well as to discredit all marauding enterprises even where these expressions of the invidious interests do not tangibly work to the material detriment of the community or the individual who passes an opinion on them it may even be said that in the modern industrial communities the average dispassionate sense of men says that the ideal character is a character which makes for peace goodwill and economic efficiency rather than for a life of self-seeking force fraud and mastery the influence of the leisure class is not consistently for or against the rehabilitation of this proto-anthropoid human nature so far as concerns the chance of survival of individuals endowed with an exceptionally large share of the primitive traits the sheltered position of the class favors its members directly by withdrawing them from the pecuniary struggle but indirectly through the leisure class cannons of conspicuous waste of goods and effort the institution of a leisure class lessens the chance of survival of such individuals in the entire body of the population the decent requirements of waste absorb the surplus energy of the population and an invidious struggle and leave no margin for the non-invidious expression of life the remotor less tangible spiritual effects of the discipline of decency go in the same direction and work perhaps more effectively to the same end the cannons of decent life are an elaboration of the principle of invidious comparison and they accordingly act consistently to inhibit all non-invidious effort and to inculcate the self-regarding attitude end of third part of chapter 13