Monday, August 25, 2003

t.g.r.v. cont.: ... the standard of expenditure which commonly guides our efforts is not the average, ordinary expenditure already achieved; it is an ideal of consumption which lies just beyond our reach... ... some of the higher wants, as for instance the habitual use of certain stimulants, or the need for salvation (in the eschatological sense), or of good repute, may in some cases take precedence over the lower or more elementary wants... ... the strain is not lightened as industrial efficiency increases and makes a lighter strain possible, but the increment of output is turned to meet... spiritual wants.... [thus] "hitherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being." ( j.s. mill)... 7:19:36 PM    comment []

topless girls read veblen continued: and still, after all allowance has been made, it appears that the canons of of pecuniary reputability do, directly or indirectly, materially affect our notions of the attributes of divinity, as well as our notions of what are the fit and adequate manner and circumstances of divine communion. it is felt that the divinity must be of a peculiarly serene and leisurely habit of life. and whenever his local habitation is pictured in poetic imagery, for edification or in appeal to devout fancy, the devout word-painter, as a matter of course, brings out before his auditor's imagination a throne with a profusion of the insignia of opulence and power, and surrounded by a great number of servitors. in the common run of such presentations of the celestial abodes, the office of this corps of servants is a vicarious leisure, their time and efforts being in great measure taken up with an industrially unproductive rehearsal of the meritorious characteristics and exploits of the divinity; while the background of the presentation is filled with the shimmer of the precious metals and of the more expensive varieties of precious stones. an extreme case occurs in the devout imagery of the negro population of the south. their word-painters are unable to descend to anything cheaper than gold; so that in this case the insistence on pecuniary beauty gives a startling effect in yellow, - such as would be unbearable to soberer taste. still, there is probably no cult in which ideals of pecuniary merit have not been called in to supplement the ideals of ceremonial adequacy that guide men's conception of what is right in the matter of sacred apparatus... 7:00:10 PM    comment []

hey y'all, we gonna commence a little changing of things. topless girls read veblen. the institution of the leisure class is found in its best development at the higher stages of barbarian culture; as, for instance, in feudal europe or feudal japan. in such communities the distinction between classes is very rigorously observed; and the feature of most striking economic significance in these class differences is the distinction maintained between the employments proper to the several classes. the upper classes are by custom exempt or excluded form industrial occupations, and are reserved for certain employments to which a degree of honour attaches. chief among the honourable employments in any feudal community is warfare; and priestly service is commonly second to warfare.... the institution of a leisure class is the outgrowth of an early discrimination between employments, according to which some employments are worthy and others unworthy. under this ancient distinction the worthy employments are those which may be classed as exploit; unworthy are those necessary everyday employments into which no appreciable element of exploit enters... the ground on which a discrimination between facts is habitually made changes as the interest from which the facts are habitually viewed changes. those features of the facts at hand are salient and substantial upon which the dominant interest of the time throws its light... the tacit common-sense distinction today is, in effect, that any effort is to be accounted industrial only so far as its ultimate purpose is the utilisation of non-human things. the coercive utilisation of man by man is not felt to be an industrial function.... 6:16:30 PM    comment []