The forces which have shaped the development of human life and of social structure are no doubt ultimately reducible to terms of living tissue and material environment; but proximately for the purpose in hand, these forces may best be stated in terms of an environment, partly human, partly non-human, and a human subject with a more or less definite physical and intellectual constitution. Taken in the aggregate5 or average, this human subject is more or less variable; chiefly, no doubt, under a rule of selective conservation of favorable variations. The selection of favorable variations is perhaps in great measure a selective conservation of ethnic6 types. In the life history of any community whose population is made up of a mixture of divers7 ethnic elements, one or another of several persistent8 and relatively9 stable types of body and of temperament rises into dominance at any given point. The situation, including the institutions in force at any given time, will favor the survival and dominance of one type of character in preference to another; and the type of man so selected to continue and to further elaborate the institutions handed down from the past will in some considerable measure shape these institutions in his own likeness10. But apart from selection as between relatively stable types of character and habits of mind, there is no doubt simultaneously11 going on a process of selective adaptation of habits of thought within the general range of aptitudes which is characteristic of the dominant ethnic type or types. There may be a variation in the fundamental character of any population by selection between relatively stable types; but there is also a variation due to adaptation in detail within the range of the type, and to selection between specific habitual12 views regarding any given social relation or group of relations.
For the present purpose, however, the question as to the nature of the adaptive process—whether it is chiefly a selection between stable types of temperament and character, or chiefly an adaptation of men's habits of thought to changing circumstances—is of less importance than the fact that, by one method or another, institutions change and develop. Institutions must change with changing circumstances, since they are of the nature of an habitual method of responding to the stimuli13 which these changing circumstances afford. The development of these institutions is the development of society. The institutions are, in substance, prevalent habits of thought with respect to particular relations and particular functions of the individual and of the community; and the scheme of life, which is made up of the aggregate of institutions in force at a given time or at a given point in the development of any society, may, on the psychological side, be broadly characterized as a prevalent spiritual attitude or a prevalent theory of life. As regards its generic14 features, this spiritual attitude or theory of life is in the last analysis reducible to terms of a prevalent type of character.
The situation of today shapes the institutions of tomorrow through a selective, coercive process, by acting15 upon men's habitual view of things, and so altering or fortifying16 a point of view or a mental attitude handed down from the past. The institutions—that is to say the habits of thought—under the guidance of which men live are in this way received from an earlier time; more or less remotely earlier, but in any event they have been elaborated in and received from the past. Institutions are products of the past process, are adapted to past circumstances, and are therefore never in full accord with the requirements of the present. In the nature of the case, this process of selective adaptation can never catch up with the progressively changing situation in which the community finds itself at any given time; for the environment, the situation, the exigencies17 of life which enforce the adaptation and exercise the selection, change from day to day; and each successive situation of the community in its turn tends to obsolescence18 as soon as it has been established. When a step in the development has been taken, this step itself constitutes a change of situation which requires a new adaptation; it becomes the point of departure for a new step in the adjustment, and so on interminably.
It is to be noted19 then, although it may be a tedious truism, that the institutions of today—the present accepted scheme of life—do not entirely20 fit the situation of today. At the same time, men's present habits of thought tend to persist indefinitely, except as circumstances enforce a change. These institutions which have thus been handed down, these habits of thought, points of view, mental attitudes and aptitudes, or what not, are therefore themselves a conservative factor. This is the factor of social inertia21, psychological inertia, conservatism. Social structure changes, develops, adapts itself to an altered situation, only through a change in the habits of thought of the several classes of the community, or in the last analysis, through a change in the habits of thought of the individuals which make up the community. The evolution of society is substantially a process of mental adaptation on the part of individuals under the stress of circumstances which will no longer tolerate habits of thought formed under and conforming to a different set of circumstances in the past. For the immediate22 purpose it need not be a question of serious importance whether this adaptive process is a process of selection and survival of persistent ethnic types or a process of individual adaptation and an inheritance of acquired traits.
Social advance, especially as seen from the point of view of economic theory, consists in a continued progressive approach to an approximately exact "adjustment of inner relations to outer relations", but this adjustment is never definitively23 established, since the "outer relations" are subject to constant change as a consequence of the progressive change going on in the "inner relations." But the degree of approximation may be greater or less, depending on the facility with which an adjustment is made. A readjustment of men's habits of thought to conform with the exigencies of an altered situation is in any case made only tardily24 and reluctantly, and only under the coercion25 exercised by a stipulation26 which has made the accredited27 views untenable. The readjustment of institutions and habitual views to an altered environment is made in response to pressure from without; it is of the nature of a response to stimulus28. Freedom and facility of readjustment, that is to say capacity for growth in social structure, therefore depends in great measure on the degree of freedom with which the situation at any given time acts on the individual members of the community-the degree of exposure of the individual members to the constraining29 forces of the environment. If any portion or class of society is sheltered from the action of the environment in any essential respect, that portion of the community, or that class, will adapt its views and its scheme of life more tardily to the altered general situation; it will in so far tend to retard30 the process of social transformation31. The wealthy leisure class is in such a sheltered position with respect to the economic forces that make for change and readjustment. And it may be said that the forces which make for a readjustment of institutions, especially in the case of a modern industrial community, are, in the last analysis, almost entirely of an economic nature.
Any community may be viewed as an industrial or economic mechanism32, the structure of which is made up of what is called its economic institutions. These institutions are habitual methods of carrying on the life process of the community in contact with the material environment in which it lives. When given methods of unfolding human activity in this given environment have been elaborated in this way, the life of the community will express itself with some facility in these habitual directions. The community will make use of the forces of the environment for the purposes of its life according to methods learned in the past and embodied33 in these institutions. But as population increases, and as men's knowledge and skill in directing the forces of nature widen, the habitual methods of relation between the members of the group, and the habitual method of carrying on the life process of the group as a whole, no longer give the same result as before; nor are the resulting conditions of life distributed and apportioned34 in the same manner or with the same effect among the various members as before. If the scheme according to which the life process of the group was carried on under the earlier conditions gave approximately the highest attainable35 result—under the circumstances—in the way of efficiency or facility of the life process of the group; then the same scheme of life unaltered will not yield the highest result attainable in this respect under the altered conditions. Under the altered conditions of population, skill, and knowledge, the facility of life as carried on according to the traditional scheme may not be lower than under the earlier conditions; but the chances are always that it is less than might be if the scheme were altered to suit the altered conditions.
The group is made up of individuals, and the group's life is the life of individuals carried on in at least ostensible36 severalty. The group's accepted scheme of life is the consensus37 of views held by the body of these individuals as to what is right, good, expedient38, and beautiful in the way of human life. In the redistribution of the conditions of life that comes of the altered method of dealing39 with the environment, the outcome is not an equable change in the facility of life throughout the group. The altered conditions may increase the facility of life for the group as a whole, but the redistribution will usually result in a decrease of facility or fullness of life for some members of the group. An advance in technical methods, in population, or in industrial organization will require at least some of the members of the community to change their habits of life, if they are to enter with facility and effect into the altered industrial methods; and in doing so they will be unable to live up to the received notions as to what are the right and beautiful habits of life.
Any one who is required to change his habits of life and his habitual relations to his fellow men will feel the discrepancy40 between the method of life required of him by the newly arisen exigencies, and the traditional scheme of life to which he is accustomed. It is the individuals placed in this position who have the liveliest incentive41 to reconstruct the received scheme of life and are most readily persuaded to accept new standards; and it is through the need of the means of livelihood42 that men are placed in such a position. The pressure exerted by the environment upon the group, and making for a readjustment of the group's scheme of life, impinges upon the members of the group in the form of pecuniary43 exigencies; and it is owing to this fact—that external forces are in great part translated into the form of pecuniary or economic exigencies—it is owing to this fact that we can say that the forces which count toward a readjustment of institutions in any modern industrial community are chiefly economic forces; or more specifically, these forces take the form of pecuniary pressure. Such a readjustment as is here contemplated44 is substantially a change in men's views as to what is good and right, and the means through which a change is wrought45 in men's apprehension46 of what is good and right is in large part the pressure of pecuniary exigencies.
Any change in men's views as to what is good and right in human life make its way but tardily at the best. Especially is this true of any change in the direction of what is called progress; that is to say, in the direction of divergence47 from the archaic48 position—from the position which may be accounted the point of departure at any step in the social evolution of the community. Retrogression, reapproach to a standpoint to which the race has been long habituated in the past, is easier. This is especially true in case the development away from this past standpoint has not been due chiefly to a substitution of an ethnic type whose temperament is alien to the earlier standpoint. The cultural stage which lies immediately back of the present in the life history of Western civilization is what has here been called the quasi-peaceable stage. At this quasi-peaceable stage the law of status is the dominant feature in the scheme of life. There is no need of pointing out how prone49 the men of today are to revert50 to the spiritual attitude of mastery and of personal subservience51 which characterizes that stage. It may rather be said to be held in an uncertain abeyance52 by the economic exigencies of today, than to have been definitely supplanted53 by a habit of mind that is in full accord with these later-developed exigencies. The predatory and quasi-peaceable stages of economic evolution seem to have been of long duration in life history of all the chief ethnic elements which go to make up the populations of the Western culture. The temperament and the propensities54 proper to those cultural stages have, therefore, attained55 such a persistence56 as to make a speedy reversion to the broad features of the corresponding psychological constitution inevitable57 in the case of any class or community which is removed from the action of those forces that make for a maintenance of the later-developed habits of thought.
It is a matter of common notoriety that when individuals, or even considerable groups of men, are segregated58 from a higher industrial culture and exposed to a lower cultural environment, or to an economic situation of a more primitive59 character, they quickly show evidence of reversion toward the spiritual features which characterize the predatory type; and it seems probable that the dolicho-blond type of European man is possessed60 of a greater facility for such reversion to barbarism than the other ethnic elements with which that type is associated in the Western culture. Examples of such a reversion on a small scale abound61 in the later history of migration62 and colonization63. Except for the fear of offending that chauvinistic64 patriotism65 which is so characteristic a feature of the predatory culture, and the presence of which is frequently the most striking mark of reversion in modern communities, the case of the American colonies might be cited as an example of such a reversion on an unusually large scale, though it was not a reversion of very large scope.
The leisure class is in great measure sheltered from the stress of those economic exigencies which prevail in any modern, highly organized industrial community. The exigencies of the struggle for the means of life are less exacting66 for this class than for any other; and as a consequence of this privileged position we should expect to find it one of the least responsive of the classes of society to the demands which the situation makes for a further growth of institutions and a readjustment to an altered industrial situation. The leisure class is the conservative class. The exigencies of the general economic situation of the community do not freely or directly impinge upon the members of this class. They are not required under penalty of forfeiture67 to change their habits of life and their theoretical views of the external world to suit the demands of an altered industrial technique, since they are not in the full sense an organic part of the industrial community. Therefore these exigencies do not readily produce, in the members of this class, that degree of uneasiness with the existing order which alone can lead any body of men to give up views and methods of life that have become habitual to them. The office of the leisure class in social evolution is to retard the movement and to conserve68 what is obsolescent69. This proposition is by no means novel; it has long been one of the commonplaces of popular opinion.
The prevalent conviction that the wealthy class is by nature conservative has been popularly accepted without much aid from any theoretical view as to the place and relation of that class in the cultural development. When an explanation of this class conservatism is offered, it is commonly the invidious one that the wealthy class opposes innovation because it has a vested interest, of an unworthy sort, in maintaining the present conditions. The explanation here put forward imputes70 no unworthy motive71. The opposition72 of the class to changes in the cultural scheme is instinctive73, and does not rest primarily on an interested calculation of material advantages; it is an instinctive revulsion at any departure from the accepted way of doing and of looking at things—a revulsion common to all men and only to be overcome by stress of circumstances. All change in habits of life and of thought is irksome. The difference in this respect between the wealthy and the common run of mankind lies not so much in the motive which prompts to conservatism as in the degree of exposure to the economic forces that urge a change. The members of the wealthy class do not yield to the demand for innovation as readily as other men because they are not constrained74 to do so.
This conservatism of the wealthy class is so obvious a feature that it has even come to be recognized as a mark of respectability. Since conservatism is a characteristic of the wealthier and therefore more reputable portion of the community, it has acquired a certain honorific or decorative75 value. It has become prescriptive to such an extent that an adherence76 to conservative views is comprised as a matter of course in our notions of respectability; and it is imperatively77 incumbent79 on all who would lead a blameless life in point of social repute. Conservatism, being an upper-class characteristic, is decorous; and conversely, innovation, being a lower-class phenomenon, is vulgar. The first and most unreflected element in that instinctive revulsion and reprobation81 with which we turn from all social innovators is this sense of the essential vulgarity of the thing. So that even in cases where one recognizes the substantial merits of the case for which the innovator82 is spokesman—as may easily happen if the evils which he seeks to remedy are sufficiently83 remote in point of time or space or personal contact—still one cannot but be sensible of the fact that the innovator is a person with whom it is at least distasteful to be associated, and from whose social contact one must shrink. Innovation is bad form.
The fact that the usages, actions, and views of the well-to-do leisure class acquire the character of a prescriptive canon of conduct for the rest of society, gives added weight and reach to the conservative influence of that class. It makes it incumbent upon all reputable people to follow their lead. So that, by virtue84 of its high position as the avatar of good form, the wealthier class comes to exert a retarding85 influence upon social development far in excess of that which the simple numerical strength of the class would assign it. Its prescriptive example acts to greatly stiffen86 the resistance of all other classes against any innovation, and to fix men's affections upon the good institutions handed down from an earlier generation. There is a second way in which the influence of the leisure class acts in the same direction, so far as concerns hindrance87 to the adoption88 of a conventional scheme of life more in accord with the exigencies of the time. This second method of upper-class guidance is not in strict consistency89 to be brought under the same category as the instinctive conservatism and aversion to new modes of thought just spoken of; but it may as well be dealt with here, since it has at least this much in common with the conservative habit of mind that it acts to retard innovation and the growth of social structure. The code of proprieties90, conventionalities, and usages in vogue91 at any given time and among any given people has more or less of the character of an organic whole; so that any appreciable92 change in one point of the scheme involves something of a change or readjustment at other points also, if not a reorganization all along the line. When a change is made which immediately touches only a minor93 point in the scheme, the consequent derangement94 of the structure of conventionalities may be inconspicuous; but even in such a case it is safe to say that some derangement of the general scheme, more or less far-reaching, will follow. On the other hand, when an attempted reform involves the suppression or thorough-going remodelling96 of an institution of first-rate importance in the conventional scheme, it is immediately felt that a serious derangement of the entire scheme would result; it is felt that a readjustment of the structure to the new form taken on by one of its chief elements would be a painful and tedious, if not a doubtful process.
In order to realize the difficulty which such a radical97 change in any one feature of the conventional scheme of life would involve, it is only necessary to suggest the suppression of the monogamic family, or of the agnatic system of consanguinity98, or of private property, or of the theistic faith, in any country of the Western civilization; or suppose the suppression of ancestor worship in China, or of the caste system in india, or of slavery in Africa, or the establishment of equality of the sexes in Mohammedan countries. It needs no argument to show that the derangement of the general structure of conventionalities in any of these cases would be very considerable. In order to effect such an innovation a very far-reaching alteration99 of men's habits of thought would be involved also at other points of the scheme than the one immediately in question. The aversion to any such innovation amounts to a shrinking from an essentially100 alien scheme of life.
The revulsion felt by good people at any proposed departure from the accepted methods of life is a familiar fact of everyday experience. It is not unusual to hear those persons who dispense101 salutary advice and admonition to the community express themselves forcibly upon the far-reaching pernicious effects which the community would suffer from such relatively slight changes as the disestablishment of the Anglican Church, an increased facility of divorce, adoption of female suffrage102, prohibition103 of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating104 beverages105, abolition106 or restriction107 of inheritances, etc. Any one of these innovations would, we are told, "shake the social structure to its base," "reduce society to chaos," "subvert108 the foundations of morality," "make life intolerable," "confound the order of nature," etc. These various locutions are, no doubt, of the nature of hyperbole; but, at the same time, like all overstatement, they are evidence of a lively sense of the gravity of the consequences which they are intended to describe. The effect of these and like innovations in deranging109 the accepted scheme of life is felt to be of much graver consequence than the simple alteration of an isolated110 item in a series of contrivances for the convenience of men in society. What is true in so obvious a degree of innovations of first-rate importance is true in a less degree of changes of a smaller immediate importance. The aversion to change is in large part an aversion to the bother of making the readjustment which any given change will necessitate111; and this solidarity112 of the system of institutions of any given culture or of any given people strengthens the instinctive resistance offered to any change in men's habits of thought, even in matters which, taken by themselves, are of minor importance. A consequence of this increased reluctance113, due to the solidarity of human institutions, is that any innovation calls for a greater expenditure114 of nervous energy in making the necessary readjustment than would otherwise be the case. It is not only that a change in established habits of thought is distasteful. The process of readjustment of the accepted theory of life involves a degree of mental effort—a more or less protracted115 and laborious116 effort to find and to keep one's bearings under the altered circumstances. This process requires a certain expenditure of energy, and so presumes, for its successful accomplishment117, some surplus of energy beyond that absorbed in the daily struggle for subsistence. Consequently it follows that progress is hindered by underfeeding and excessive physical hardship, no less effectually than by such a luxurious118 life as will shut out discontent by cutting off the occasion for it. The abjectly119 poor, and all those persons whose energies are entirely absorbed by the struggle for daily sustenance120, are conservative because they cannot afford the effort of taking thought for the day after tomorrow; just as the highly prosperous are conservative because they have small occasion to be discontented with the situation as it stands today.
From this proposition it follows that the institution of a leisure class acts to make the lower classes conservative by withdrawing from them as much as it may of the means of sustenance, and so reducing their consumption, and consequently their available energy, to such a point as to make them incapable121 of the effort required for the learning and adoption of new habits of thought. The accumulation of wealth at the upper end of the pecuniary scale implies privation at the lower end of the scale. It is a commonplace that, wherever it occurs, a considerable degree of privation among the body of the people is a serious obstacle to any innovation.
This direct inhibitory effect of the unequal distribution of wealth is seconded by an indirect effect tending to the same result. As has already been seen, the imperative78 example set by the upper class in fixing the canons of reputability fosters the practice of conspicuous95 consumption. The prevalence of conspicuous consumption as one of the main elements in the standard of decency122 among all classes is of course not traceable wholly to the example of the wealthy leisure class, but the practice and the insistence123 on it are no doubt strengthened by the example of the leisure class. The requirements of decency in this matter are very considerable and very imperative; so that even among classes whose pecuniary position is sufficiently strong to admit a consumption of goods considerably124 in excess of the subsistence minimum, the disposable surplus left over after the more imperative physical needs are satisfied is not infrequently diverted to the purpose of a conspicuous decency, rather than to added physical comfort and fullness of life. Moreover, such surplus energy as is available is also likely to be expended125 in the acquisition of goods for conspicuous consumption or conspicuous boarding. The result is that the requirements of pecuniary reputability tend (1) to leave but a scanty126 subsistence minimum available for other than conspicuous consumption, and (2) to absorb any surplus energy which may be available after the bare physical necessities of life have been provided for. The outcome of the whole is a strengthening of the general conservative attitude of the community. The institution of a leisure class hinders cultural development immediately (1) by the inertia proper to the class itself, (2) through its prescriptive example of conspicuous waste and of conservatism, and (3) indirectly127 through that system of unequal distribution of wealth and sustenance on which the institution itself rests. To this is to be added that the leisure class has also a material interest in leaving things as they are. Under the circumstances prevailing at any given time this class is in a privileged position, and any departure from the existing order may be expected to work to the detriment128 of the class rather than the reverse. The attitude of the class, simply as influenced by its class interest, should therefore be to let well-enough alone. This interested motive comes in to supplement the strong instinctive bias129 of the class, and so to render it even more consistently conservative than it otherwise would be.
All this, of course, has nothing to say in the way of eulogy130 or deprecation of the office of the leisure class as an exponent131 and vehicle of conservatism or reversion in social structure. The inhibition which it exercises may be salutary or the reverse. Wether it is the one or the other in any given case is a question of casuistry rather than of general theory. There may be truth in the view (as a question of policy) so often expressed by the spokesmen of the conservative element, that without some such substantial and consistent resistance to innovation as is offered by the conservative well-to-do classes, social innovation and experiment would hurry the community into untenable and intolerable situations; the only possible result of which would be discontent and disastrous132 reaction. All this, however, is beside the present argument.
But apart from all deprecation, and aside from all question as to the indispensability of some such check on headlong innovation, the leisure class, in the nature of things, consistently acts to retard that adjustment to the environment which is called social advance or development. The characteristic attitude of the class may be summed up in the maxim133: "Whatever is, is right" whereas the law of natural selection, as applied134 to human institutions, gives the axiom: "Whatever is, is wrong." Not that the institutions of today are wholly wrong for the purposes of the life of today, but they are, always and in the nature of things, wrong to some extent. They are the result of a more or less inadequate135 adjustment of the methods of living to a situation which prevailed at some point in the past development; and they are therefore wrong by something more than the interval136 which separates the present situation from that of the past. "Right" and "wrong" are of course here used without conveying any rejection137 as to what ought or ought not to be. They are applied simply from the (morally colorless) evolutionary138 standpoint, and are intended to designate compatibility or incompatibility139 with the effective evolutionary process. The institution of a leisure class, by force or class interest and instinct, and by precept140 and prescriptive example, makes for the perpetuation141 of the existing maladjustment of institutions, and even favors a reversion to a somewhat more archaic scheme of life; a scheme which would be still farther out of adjustment with the exigencies of life under the existing situation even than the accredited, obsolescent scheme that has come down from the immediate past.
But after all has been said on the head of conservation of the good old ways, it remains142 true that institutions change and develop. There is a cumulative143 growth of customs and habits of thought; a selective adaptation of conventions and methods of life. Something is to be said of the office of the leisure class in guiding this growth as well as in retarding it; but little can be said here of its relation to institutional growth except as it touches the institutions that are primarily and immediately of an economic character. These institutions—the economic structure—may be roughly distinguished144 into two classes or categories, according as they serve one or the other of two divergent purposes of economic life.
To adapt the classical terminology145, they are institutions of acquisition or of production; or to revert to terms already employed in a different connection in earlier chapters, they are pecuniary or industrial institutions; or in still other terms, they are institutions serving either the invidious or the non-invidious economic interest. The former category have to do with "business," the latter with industry, taking the latter word in the mechanical sense. The latter class are not often recognized as institutions, in great part because they do not immediately concern the ruling class, and are, therefore, seldom the subject of legislation or of deliberate convention. When they do receive attention they are commonly approached from the pecuniary or business side; that being the side or phase of economic life that chiefly occupies men's deliberations in our time, especially the deliberations of the upper classes. These classes have little else than a business interest in things economic, and on them at the same time it is chiefly incumbent to deliberate upon the community's affairs.
The relation of the leisure (that is, propertied non-industrial) class to the economic process is a pecuniary relation—a relation of acquisition, not of production; of exploitation, not of serviceability. Indirectly their economic office may, of course, be of the utmost importance to the economic life process; and it is by no means here intended to depreciate146 the economic function of the propertied class or of the captains of industry. The purpose is simply to point out what is the nature of the relation of these classes to the industrial process and to economic institutions. Their office is of a parasitic147 character, and their interest is to divert what substance they may to their own use, and to retain whatever is under their hand. The conventions of the business world have grown up under the selective surveillance of this principle of predation or parasitism148. They are conventions of ownership; derivatives149, more or less remote, of the ancient predatory culture. But these pecuniary institutions do not entirely fit the situation of today, for they have grown up under a past situation differing somewhat from the present. Even for effectiveness in the pecuniary way, therefore, they are not as apt as might be. The changed industrial life requires changed methods of acquisition; and the pecuniary classes have some interest in so adapting the pecuniary institutions as to give them the best effect for acquisition of private gain that is compatible with the continuance of the industrial process out of which this gain arises. Hence there is a more or less consistent trend in the leisure-class guidance of institutional growth, answering to the pecuniary ends which shape leisure-class economic life.
The effect of the pecuniary interest and the pecuniary habit of mind upon the growth of institutions is seen in those enactments150 and conventions that make for security of property, enforcement of contracts, facility of pecuniary transactions, vested interests. Of such bearing are changes affecting bankruptcy151 and receiverships, limited liability, banking152 and currency, coalitions153 of laborers154 or employers, trusts and pools. The community's institutional furniture of this kind is of immediate consequence only to the propertied classes, and in proportion as they are propertied; that is to say, in proportion as they are to be ranked with the leisure class. But indirectly these conventions of business life are of the gravest consequence for the industrial process and for the life of the community. And in guiding the institutional growth in this respect, the pecuniary classes, therefore, serve a purpose of the most serious importance to the community, not only in the conservation of the accepted social scheme, but also in shaping the industrial process proper. The immediate end of this pecuniary institutional structure and of its amelioration is the greater facility of peaceable and orderly exploitation; but its remoter effects far outrun this immediate object. Not only does the more facile conduct of business permit industry and extra-industrial life to go on with less perturbation; but the resulting elimination155 of disturbances156 and complications calling for an exercise of astute157 discrimination in everyday affairs acts to make the pecuniary class itself superfluous158. As fast as pecuniary transactions are reduced to routine, the captain of industry can be dispensed159 with. This consummation, it is needless to say, lies yet in the indefinite future. The ameliorations wrought in favor of the pecuniary interest in modern institutions tend, in another field, to substitute the "soulless" joint-stock corporation for the captain, and so they make also for the dispensability, of the great leisure-class function of ownership. Indirectly, therefore, the bent80 given to the growth of economic institutions by the leisure-class influence is of very considerable industrial consequence.
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prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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aptitudes
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| （学习方面的）才能，资质，天资( aptitude的名词复数 ) | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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aggregate
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| adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合 | |
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ethnic
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| adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的 | |
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divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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relatively
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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stimuli
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| n.刺激（物） | |
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generic
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| adj.一般的，普通的，共有的 | |
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15
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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16
fortifying
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| 筑防御工事于( fortify的现在分词 )； 筑堡于； 增强； 强化（食品） | |
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17
exigencies
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| n.急切需要 | |
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18
obsolescence
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| n.过时，陈旧，废弃 | |
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19
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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20
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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21
inertia
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| adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝 | |
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22
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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23
definitively
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| adv.决定性地，最后地 | |
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24
tardily
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| adv.缓慢 | |
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25
coercion
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| n.强制，高压统治 | |
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26
stipulation
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| n.契约，规定，条文；条款说明 | |
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27
accredited
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| adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于 | |
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28
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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29
constraining
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| 强迫( constrain的现在分词 )； 强使； 限制； 约束 | |
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30
retard
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| n.阻止，延迟；vt.妨碍，延迟，使减速 | |
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31
transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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32
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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33
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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34
apportioned
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| vt.分摊，分配（apportion的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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35
attainable
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| a.可达到的，可获得的 | |
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36
ostensible
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| adj.(指理由)表面的，假装的 | |
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37
consensus
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| n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识 | |
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38
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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39
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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40
discrepancy
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| n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾 | |
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41
incentive
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| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
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42
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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43
pecuniary
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| adj.金钱的；金钱上的 | |
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44
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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45
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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46
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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47
divergence
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| n.分歧，岔开 | |
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48
archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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49
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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50
revert
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| v.恢复，复归，回到 | |
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51
subservience
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| n.有利，有益；从属（地位），附属性；屈从，恭顺；媚态 | |
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52
abeyance
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| n.搁置，缓办，中止，产权未定 | |
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53
supplanted
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| 把…排挤掉，取代( supplant的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
propensities
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| n.倾向，习性( propensity的名词复数 ) | |
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55
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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56
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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57
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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58
segregated
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| 分开的； 被隔离的 | |
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59
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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60
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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61
abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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62
migration
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| n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙 | |
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63
colonization
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| 殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖 | |
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64
chauvinistic
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| a.沙文主义(者)的 | |
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65
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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66
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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67
forfeiture
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| n.（名誉等）丧失 | |
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68
conserve
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| vt.保存，保护，节约，节省，守恒，不灭 | |
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69
obsolescent
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| adj.过时的，难管束的 | |
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70
imputes
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| v.把（错误等）归咎于( impute的第三人称单数 ) | |
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71
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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72
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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73
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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74
constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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75
decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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76
adherence
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| n.信奉，依附，坚持，固着 | |
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77
imperatively
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| adv.命令式地 | |
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78
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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79
incumbent
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| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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80
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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81
reprobation
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| n.斥责 | |
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82
innovator
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| n.改革者；创新者 | |
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83
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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84
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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85
retarding
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| 使减速( retard的现在分词 )； 妨碍； 阻止； 推迟 | |
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86
stiffen
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| v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬 | |
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87
hindrance
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| n.妨碍，障碍 | |
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88
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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89
consistency
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| n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度 | |
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90
proprieties
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| n.礼仪，礼节；礼貌( propriety的名词复数 )；规矩；正当；合适 | |
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91
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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92
appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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93
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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94
derangement
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| n.精神错乱 | |
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95
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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96
remodelling
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| v.改变…的结构[形状]( remodel的现在分词 ) | |
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97
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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98
consanguinity
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| n.血缘；亲族 | |
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99
alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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100
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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101
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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102
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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103
prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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104
intoxicating
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| a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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105
beverages
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| n.饮料( beverage的名词复数 ) | |
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106
abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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107
restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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108
subvert
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| v.推翻；暗中破坏；搅乱 | |
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109
deranging
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| v.疯狂的，神经错乱的( deranged的过去分词 )；混乱的 | |
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110
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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111
necessitate
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| v.使成为必要，需要 | |
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112
solidarity
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| n.团结；休戚相关 | |
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113
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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114
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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115
protracted
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| adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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116
laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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117
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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118
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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119
abjectly
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| 凄惨地； 绝望地； 糟透地； 悲惨地 | |
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120
sustenance
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| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
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121
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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122
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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123
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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124
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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125
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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126
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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127
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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128
detriment
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| n.损害；损害物，造成损害的根源 | |
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129
bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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130
eulogy
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| n.颂词；颂扬 | |
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131
exponent
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| n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂 | |
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132
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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133
maxim
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| n.格言，箴言 | |
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134
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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135
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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136
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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137
rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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138
evolutionary
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| adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的 | |
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139
incompatibility
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| n.不兼容 | |
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140
precept
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| n.戒律；格言 | |
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141
perpetuation
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| n.永存，不朽 | |
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142
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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143
cumulative
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| adj.累积的，渐增的 | |
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144
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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145
terminology
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| n.术语；专有名词 | |
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146
depreciate
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| v.降价，贬值，折旧 | |
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147
parasitic
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| adj.寄生的 | |
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148
parasitism
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| n.寄生状态，寄生病；寄生性 | |
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149
derivatives
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| n.衍生性金融商品；派生物，引出物( derivative的名词复数 )；导数 | |
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150
enactments
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| n.演出( enactment的名词复数 )；展现；规定；通过 | |
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151
bankruptcy
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| n.破产；无偿付能力 | |
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152
banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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153
coalitions
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| 结合体，同盟( coalition的名词复数 )； （两党或多党）联合政府 | |
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154
laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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155
elimination
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| n.排除，消除，消灭 | |
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156
disturbances
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| n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍 | |
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157
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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158
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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159
dispensed
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| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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