The Theory of the Leisure Class Book

I recently read Mills' 'White Collar' and couldn't get over how often he referred to this book. All the same, I hesitated before reading it, not least since my concern that Mills' book was 'a bit old' was obviously multiplied by the age of this one. But this is brilliant. Now, you know when people tell you that you should read a book because it is 'a classic' you are likely to think - yeah, that just means you've read it and so either want to just show off or you think that 'if I've put myself through it, you might as well too' - well, no, you should read this one, not just because it is good for you, but because it is seriously interesting.

The most obvious point people will bring up about this book is the idea of conspicuous consumption - and why not, it really is such a useful idea. But I think to understand that you need to first get that the major point of this book is the idea that society develops in ways that are similar to Darwinian evolution - not least, that it, that society isn't in a fixed state, but rather that it develops and changes as it goes on through adaptations given the environment society finds itself in. So, rather than society 'progressing', it is in fact evolving. I mean, rather than moving towards increasing perfection, it is instead passing through stages of equilibrium until those equilibriums are disturbed and forced into a new equilibrium.

And so to understand how the leisured class manifests today, it helps to understand the history that has produced that class. To explain this Veblen starts his analysis by considering communal, hunter/gatherer societies and discusses divisions of labour and the impact these had on social standing. The most important early division of labour being that between men and women, leading to the higher social standing of men and 'men's work'. But also through higher prowess in achieving one's ends.

Veblen makes it clear that it requires a certain level of development of the productivity of labour before mere prowess stops being enough to ensure social esteem. As society becomes more productive and certain people are able to keep a larger and larger shares of what society produces, the major way that the ruling classes have of showing their position in society is by conspicuous leisure. But this is a complex thing - it is actually hard work to do nothing at all. Veblen uses the idea of the division of labour to show that it is not that the leisure classes do nothing at all, but that what they do can't be considered 'productive'. So, he talks of a French king who basically cooks to death beside a fire, rather than move his royal person away from the heat, as this is the job of a footman - or I think a Polynesian king who starved to death rather than lift the food sitting beside him to his royal mouth. The point being that the leisured classes avoiding anything that could be considered productive work - and after a while avoiding such work does not remain an affectation, but rather becomes a dire necessity of self-definition.

The notion of conspicuous leisure is really interesting - in classes below the ruling ones, a person's status is often not defined by one's own leisure, since they are likely to not be high enough up the social ladder to be able to afford to avoid work entirely, but rather in your ability to allow the vicarious leisure of your wife. Again, not that 'running the house' is pure leisure, but since it brings nothing into the house per se it can be seen as a kind of leisure as conspicuous expense. And again, women are likely to be lavished with trinkets and 'nice' things and that their consumption of these are the last things families give up, as it is a vicarious way to show the social standing of the whole family.

This then transfers to goods - he discusses spoons, as an instance, that might be either hand or machine made and although both kinds might look exactly the same, more or less, the more expensive hand-made ones are considered more beautiful. Here it is conspicuous consumption proper that we are observing, but it is unlikely that those engaged in the purchase perceive it as such. That is, you are likely to see your purchase of the equally serviceable, but much more expensive spoon as simply an aesthetic choice, rather than one allowing you to show off your wealth. This part reminded me very much of Sennett's Craftsmen, the idea of a craftsperson incorporating little flaws in the material being worked because these show the individuality of the piece is also discussed here too.

I'm going to quote a couple of paragraphs from the excellent introduction to this book to show some of the scope of what Veblen discusses here:

"Do not think that the ideas Veblen introduced in his first two chapters complete the shocks The Theory of the Leisure Class has to offer. Twelve more tightly packed chapters lie ahead, each with insights (both subtle and biting) into matters that affect (and infect) our own times. Among his conclusions are the following: (1) to be seen doing work is to be lowered in social esteem; (2) ceremonial labour is executed only for show, in concert with the busy idleness of conspicuous leisure; (3) the superficial display of good manners and good forms is a waste of time, yet clung to as an enhancement of one's social prestige; (4) although modern-day gentlemen may not wolf down their caviar, their gluttony is merely more discreet than that of feudal lords who gnawed on beef-bones; (5) the host who displays expensive forms of hospitality expects this to demonstrate that he owns so much he cannot consume it all himself; (6) the obsessive decoration of homes is too often the sad result of desperate house-wives whose lives are defined by the wasteful expenditure of time and money; (7) the poor cling to cheap gewgaws in an attempt to emulate upper-class habits accepted as the sign of social respectability; (8) when educated to believe that to save their earnings is not a good, people buy useless products that only bring profit to their manufacturers; (9) the age-old craving for gold and diamonds (breeders of wars and misery, lacking all social use) is supplemented by the modern hunger for brand-names that give objects a value they do not actually possess.

"By Chapter VI''Pecuniary Canons of Taste' where the intensity of Veblen's critiques continues to be quietly raised to new levels of outrage'the trajectory of his thesis is well underway. Church worship encouraged by religious institutions is yet another form of 'honorific waste'. The worship of God is based on the public's attempt to emulate His high status in the hope of winning His esteem, despite the fact that He is but another genteel gentleman of leisure. Team sports and gambling follow the same impulse that leads to belief in God, since all are based on 'animistic beliefs and anthropomorphic creeds'. Veblen likens the ornate robes worn by churchmen to the clothes that restrict women's mobility (those corsets!) to suggest that neither group has any useful work to pursue. He names the mutual devotion by priests and women to 'doing good' through ineffectual reforms and philanthropies as further proof of their social inadequacies. As for the ritualistic pursuit of academic honours by university professors, their efforts'like those of fraternities and college athletics' have little use in the modern world."

As you can see, there is lots of interesting stuff here - with even God and His representatives coming under the sway of their power so as to display their own conspicuous consumption and leisure.

The bits of this I found most remarkable where the bits that most reminded me of Bourdieu's sociology. Basically, Bourdieu argues that different social classes find ways to display their status by the things they prefer. He talks about how the working class think people that would spend as much as they earn in a year on a watch seem utterly incomprehensible to them, while those buying the watch see a beauty in the watch that is mostly hidden from the working class by the 'opportunity costs' that amount of money could buy of things other than the watch. For Bourdieu taste is formed out of habit and out of the need to display one's position - however unconsciously. And Veblen says much the same thing. Here habits and class rituals become second-nature and common sense. The preference for one thing over another is rarely understood in terms of outright conspicuous consumption, but rather as a kind of necessity. This provides a dark vision of society, since capitalism constantly creates new needs, making old ones simultaneously repulsive. This is more than mere fashion - but the active definition of one's identity within society.

He twice discusses how English spelling - and the very difficult to learn rules that govern it's 'beauty' - are part of the busy work involved in being able to display social distinction - all matters of taste, such as the archaistic rules of English spelling - allow those allowed the leisure to learn such rules the ability to judge those as manifestly inferior given their clear inability to master these rules. Hard to imagine something more like Bourdieu's ideas of cultural capital, habitus, symbolic violence and distinction.

This book is surprisingly modern in its outlook. And really worth the read.