Thorstein Veblen

Nominally in the vein of self improvement, I sometimes make reading selections from the "Lifetime Reading Plan" by Clifton Fadiman/John Majors, or from the Peter Boxall "1001 Books you Must Read Before You Die" list.

There is an app available for iTouch/iPad that assists in tracking one's reading history for the 1001 Books list, which is neat.  LibraryThing, at which I am a lifetime member, has several groups that read and discuss various lists of books including both of these lists.

Recently, though, I started reading Thorstein Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class" which is not on either of these lists.  Published in 1899, it is well out of copyright and is available free in eBook format from Amazon for those of us who read on Kindles or Kindle apps, or from Project Gutenberg for pretty much everyone else. (I'm pretty certain the Kindle eBook is derived from the Gutenberg eBook anyway).

I've been encouraging everyone to read it. I think it is quite interesting and has some relevance to today's economic times, but mostly it encourages me to introspect on what I should do with and about all my crap.  A couple chapters in, I was feeling guilty about "conspicuous consumption". That term as Veblen meant it had the connotation of useless waste about it.  I don't feel my crap falls into the useless waste category (yet, who does?), and it certainly is not for show or to impress anyone.  I'm pretty sure there's nearly no one that has any interest in, or is impressed by, the contents of some of the piles around here.

Let me be clear:  These are not piles under which one day I will be found dead, pinned under a pile of something that fell over on me.  Some people, who watch too much reality TV, think I'm a hoarder in the sense portrayed on television:  dangerous to themselves and others, 500 poorly cared for cats, disgusting filthy piles of mess everywhere.  That's not me. For one thing, I only have one cat.

Veblen's discussion of leisure class though, does leave me feeling guilty about a couple things, and questioning why exactly I have so much crap. There is no possibility in my remaining lifetime, that I could read all the books I have, yet I am compelled to continue buying them because, well, I love books.  I have several hobbies, and the piles of crap that go with each hobby, yet I'm interested in each hobby, and pursue them all, with differing degrees of diligence perhaps, but pursue them nonetheless.  These are not "luxury" hobbies either, though they probably satisfy Veblen's notion of leisure class pursuits as they require special training and time commitments and don't really result in anything useful being created.  For the most part, they are solitary pursuits, not the kinds of things one needs a club, associates, or an audience to participate in.

I was explaining to someone close to me that most of the piles around here are books, and that I just need a good way to store them, as the bookcases are all full.  They evidently don't believe me, but it is fundamentally true.  There is disorganization and clutter that is not book related, but those non-book items, hobby gear, etc. don't actually occupy that much space.

Reading Veblen is making me speculate on motivation, though. How much of what I do is actually about influencing what someone else thinks, not about what I myself actually want to do?  Veblen talks about manners and other social mores as behaviors whose utility is essentially distinguishing a leisure lifestyle from a menial lifestyle, and I can see that argument as valid, but I also think we in society owe each other a certain cultural civility, don't we?

I'm somewhere near the end of chapter 4, and around 20% through the book (thanks, Kindle!) as I write this, so maybe an epiphany is soon forthcoming.

Anyway, read Veblen.  Comments are welcome, though moderated.