THE COMPLETE WORKS OF THORSTEIN VEBLEN: Economics Books, Business Essays & Political Articles. Thorstein Veblen
target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_e022476d-1c6e-5354-9c2c-05005d657b64">157The cultural era of Natural Rights, Natural Liberty, and Natural Religion reduced God to the rank of a "Great Artificer," and the machine technology is, in turn, relegating Him to that fringe of minor employments and those outlying industrial regions to which the handicraftsmen have been retired.
158There is a similar suggestion in the relative (slight but perceptible) decline of scientific animus in England since the English community has turned its attention and aspirations to imperialistic feats of prowess more than to industrial matters.
159Compare, however, Sombart, Kapitalismus, especially vol. I. ch. VIII and XV. Sombart finds the modern scientific concept of cause and effect to be essentially an outcome of the discipline of accountancy enforced by business traffic. So that he makes business enterprise rather than mechanical industry accountable for the rise of modern science and for the matter-of-fact character which distinguishes this science. In this view there is, no doubt, a large and valuable element of truth. To the end of a mathematical formulation of causal phenomena as well as a tenacious grasp of the principle of quantitative equivalence, the accountancy enfoxed by the petty trade of early modern times, as well as by commercial traffic proper, appears to have given the most effective training. In so far as this element of quantitative equivalence, simply, has dominated the growth of science, it has given, as its most perfect product, Positivism. Positivism flourished at its best and freest in France, where the modern economic culture was commercial rather than mechanical. And when the machine discipline seriously invaded France, Positivism languished and died. But modern seience is not a calculus simply. It deals not with calculations of quantitative equivalence only, but with efficient causes, active relations, creative foxes. The concept of efficient cause is not a derivative of accountancy, nor is it formed in the image of accountancy. But this generic concept of efficient cause, the kinetic concept, antedates Positivism and has outlived it. In its earlier (eighteenth-century) phase this concept shows close relationship with the notion of workmanship, in its later (nineteenth-century) use it has much in common with the notion of mechanical efficiency.
160Darwin, of course, does not stand alone. He is the great exponent of a mass movement which involves a shifting of the point of view and of the point of interest in scientific research and speculation.
161This is the substance of Darwin's advance over Lamarck, for instance.
162"Ought", is of course here used to denote business expediency, not moral restraint.
163As a side line, which affords play for the staff's creative talent, whatever is exceptionally sensational at the same time that it is harmless to the advertisers' interests should, in newspaper slang be "played up".
164Business enterprises that are not notable advertisers may be roundly eken to task, as, e.g., the Standard Oil Company or the American Sugar Refining Company; and, indeed, it may be shrewd management to abuse these concerns, since such abuse redounds to the periodical's reputation for popular sympathy and independence.
165"Snobbery" is here used without disrespect, as a convenient term to denote the element of strain involved in the quest of gentility on the Part of persons whose accustomed social sending is less high or less authentic than their aspirations.
166Cf., e.g., Maurice Lair, l'Imperialism allemand, especially ch. II and III. The like change of sentiment is visible in the British community. Cf. Hobson, Imperialism, especially pt II, ch. I and III.
167Cf., e.g., Hobson, Imperialism, p. II, chap. VII.
168The selective effect of warfare, both ancient and modern, has been discussed by various writers. Protracted wars Or a warlike policy always have some such effect, no doubt, and in old times this has shown itself to be a serious cultural factor. It is commonly regarded that the selection results in an elimination of the "best" human material. Perhaps the most cogent spokesman for this view is D.S. Jordan, The Blood of the Nation. The "best" in this case must be taken to mean the best for the prupose, not necessarily for other purposes. In such a case as the Chinese or the Jewish peoples, e.g., a very long-continued, though not in both cases a close, selective elimination of the peace-dturbing elements has left a residue that is highly efficient ("good") in certain directions, but not good war material. The case of the North-European peoples, however, in the present juncture is somewhat different from these. Racially, the most efficient war material among them seems to be those elements that contain an appreciable admixture of the dolicho-blond stock. These elements at the same time are apparently, on the whole, also the ones most generally endowed with industrial initiative and a large, aptitude for the machine technology and scientific research. Selective elinination by war and military tenure in the case of these peoples should, therefore, apparently lower both their fighting capacity and their industrial and intellectual capacity; so that, by force of this double and cumulative effect, the resulting national decline should in their case be comprehensive and relatively precipitate.
169With the complement of archaic virtues that invests these adepts there is also associated a fair complement of those more elemental vices that are growing obsolete in the peaceable civilized communities. Such debaucheries, extravagances of cruelty, and general superfluity of naughtiness as are nameless or impossible in civil life are blameless matters of course in the service. In the nature of the case they are inseparable from the service. The service commonly leaves the veterans physical, intellectual, and moral invalids (as witness the records of the Pension Office). But these less handsome concomitants of the service should scarcely be made a point of reproach to those brave men whose devotion to the flag and the business interests has led them by the paths of disease and depravity. Nor are the accumulated vices to be lightly condemned, since their weight also falls on the conservative side; being archaic and authenticated, their cultural bearing is, on the whole, salutary.
170See Chapter VIII, pp. 347-350.
THE INSTINCT OF WORKMANSHIP AND THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS
Chapter II. Contamination of Instincts in Primitive Technology
Chapter III. The Savage State of the Industrial Arts
Chapter IV. The Technology of the Predatory Culture