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The Western Canon Mailing List
Moderator: Paul John Barnette Jr.
Activation Date: March 8, 1997
Current Date: May 1,1997  
Current Membership: 42
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It's May 1st and time to start reading Milton, but before
we all begin to discuss Paradise Lost I would like to give
some parting thoughts on Veblen.

It was mentioned in a previous posting that many experts
rank Veblen below Weber because of Veblen's unempirical
style. I quess these experts prefer to see economics as a 
mere number crunching subject. I suspect this results from
a desire to make economics more 'scientific' and 'objective'.
Many in the social sciences attempt to use the physical 
sciences as their model, and this usually leeds to an ever
increasing reliance on mathematical analysis. They believe
that such an approach will have a greater success in discovering
the truth. Personally, I have grave doubts about this approach.
To reduce the human, i.e. social sciences to a series of cold
equations does not seem to me to be necessarily the path to
truth, and definitely not the path to wisdom.

To me Veblen's "The Theory of of the Leisure Class" was never
intended to be either 'scientific' or even 'objective'. Instead
it is a very skillful exercise in rhetoric (I would say propaganda,
but so many consider that to be a dirty word). The manner in which
Veblen presents his 'facts' is specifically designed to draw a very
negative picture of the wealthy, even though he explicitly denies
this. In fact, I suspect the even this denial was part of his master
plan. The vocabulary and examples that Veblen uses are anything but
flattering. As was mentioned in a previous posting, Veblen erects a
picture of the rich that is self-condemning. This was definitely not
lost on the members of the leisure class during the time this work was
first published for it was condemned as being marxist, communist,
socialist, or even worse the work of a mere academic.

I particularly enjoyed Veblen's use of humor in his work. His dry wit
often borders on pure sarcasm. I found myself actually laughing out
loud when reading it, which I found quite surprising a reaction to
have toward a economic text. Then again, being a child of the 1970's I
have an almost instinctive appreciation of sarcasm.

I also enjoyed the way in which Veblen forces you to view the world in
the manner that he wants you to. Often I could remember examples from
my own personal experiences that totally validated the point he was
trying to make. I even began to view the world through Veblen's eyes
during my everyday activities while I was reading him. I believe that
I am not alone in having these reactions, and I hold this to be proof
of Veblen's talent and power as a writer.

Veblen, of course, is not without his flaws. I find there to be
three areas in his analysis that are problematic. The first is his
historical analysis of the development of the leisure class, which in
detail is in all probability far from the actual case. But I do not
find this to be a deadly flaw because it can be seen to serve the role
of a necessary fiction in his work, such as the social contract theory
served to be in the works of Locke and Rousseau. The second is his use
of ethnic groups in his analysis. Not only do I find this to be
incorrect on the face of it, but I also find it to be potentially very
dangerous. I can see Veblen being a victim of his times on this point,
but unfortunately this all too often occurs even today, take the Bell
Curve controversy for example. The final flaw is his totally inability
to incorporate the women's movement in his overall scheme. Veblen's
viewpoint is that it is a de-evolutionary development, but I contend
that it's simply a case of the female sex attempting to become a full
member in the club of 'vicious consumption'. Perhaps Veblen was a
victim of his times on this point as well, but after learning of his
many infidelities from a previous posting, I suspect him of being a
misoynist by nature.

This is all for now. I hope everyone enjoy's reading Milton this
month, and I am looking forward to reading many postings (hint, hint).


Paul John Barnette Jr.


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