This is not the case everywhere.In many nations the distinctions of caste, class, locality or occupation, are so strong as to preclude the passage of habits of material consumption, manners, tastes and ideas, from one social stratum to another.The exclusive possession of a code of life, of language, thought and feelings by a caste or class, is itself a matter of pride, and often of legal protection.This holds not only of most Asiatic civilisations but, though less rigorously, of those European countries which have not been fully subjected to the dissolving forces of industrialism.
But in such countries as England and the United States, where the industrial arts are rapidly evolving new products and stimulating new tastes, and where at the same time the social strata present a continuous gradation with much movement from one stratum to another, the process of Station by prestige is very rapid and general.
The actual expenditure of the income of every class in these countries is very largely determined, not by organic needs, but by imitation of the conventional consumption of the class immediately above in income or in social esteem.That conventional consumption in its turn is formed by imitation of the class above.The aristocracy, plutocracy, or class with most power or prestige, thus makes the standards for the other classes.
Now, even if it were a real aristocracy, a company of the best, it by no means follows that a standard of living good for them would be equally good for other social grades.But there would be at least a strong presumption in its favour.To copy good examples, even if the copying is defective, is an elevating practice, and in as much as the essentials of humanity are found alike in all, thoughtless imitation of one's betters might raise one's own standard.If in a society the men of light and leading occupied this place because they had discovered a genius for the art of noble living, the swift unconscious imitation of their mode of life, the morals and manners of this aristocracy, would surely be the finest schooling for the whole people: the models of the good, the true, the beautiful, which they afforded, would inform each lower grade, according to its capacity.
But where the whole forces of prestige and imitation are set on a sham aristocracy, copying as closely as possible their modes of consumption, their ways of thought and feeling, their valuations and ideals, incalculable damage and waste may ensue.For the defects in the standard of the upper few will, by imitation, be magnified as well as multiplied in the lower standards of the many.Let me illustrate.
If gambling is bad for the upper classes, its imitation becomes progressively worse as it descends, poisoning the life and consuming a larger proportion of the diminishing margin of the income of each class.If the inconvenience of decorative dress is bad for rich women, who live a life of ease and leisure, its imitation by the active housewives of the middle, and the women-workers of the lower classes, inflicts a graver disutility.For the waste of income is more injurious and the physical impediments to liberty of movement are more onerous.It is the immeasurable importance of this prestige of the upper class, percolating through all lower social grades, and imposing, not merely elements of conventional consumption, but standards and ideas of life which affect the whole mode of living, that requires us to give closer consideration to the life of the leisure class.
§10.Here we can find valuable aid in a remarkable book entitled The Theory of the Leisure Class , by Mr.Veblen, an American sociologist.
Regarded as a scientific study, which it rightly claims to be, this book has two considerable defects, one of manner, one of matter.Its analysis is conducted with a half-humorous parade of pompous terminology apt to wear upon the temper of the reader.Its exaggerated stress upon a single strain of personality, as a dominant influence in the formation of habits and the direction of conduct, is a more serious blemish in a work of profound and penetrating power.But for our present purpose, that of discovering the elements of waste in national consumption, it is of first-rate importance.
Mr.Veblen's main line of argument may be summarised as follows.In primitive society war and the chase will be the chief means by which men may satisfy that craving for personal distinction and importance which is the most enduring and importunate of psychical desires.Personal process, mainly physical, displayed in fight or hunt, will secure leadership or ascendency in tribal life.So those trophies which attest such prowess, the skulls or scalps of enemies, the skins of slain animals, or the live possession of tame animals, will be the most highly-prized forms of property.
When the capture and enslavement of enemies has taken the place of promiscuous slaughter, the size and variety of his retinue of slaves for personal service, concubinage, or merely decorative show, attest the greatness of the warrior-chief.
When the industrial arts are sufficiently developed, slaves will be set to produce such other forms of property, enlarged housing, quantities of showy garments, cultivated fields, herds of cattle, as afford conspicuous evidence of the personal prowess of the chief.Glory, far more than utility or comfort, continues to be the dominant motive.
As civilisation begins to make way, the notion of what constitutes personal process begins to be modified.Though physical force may still remain a chief ingredient, skill and cunning, wisdom in counsel, capacity for command and law-making, come to be recognised as also giving prestige.
