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nydus/The Theory of Business EnterprisePublic

Thorstein Veblen examines the modern industrial system as a structure defined by the machine process and investment for profit. He analyzes how business enterprise and the pursuit of financial gain serve as the primary forces directing contemporary economic organization.

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' CL, on Uie other baud, Reinbold, Arbeit und Werkzeug, cb. XII. and XIV., nbere double dealing is confused with workmaoBbip, very much kfter the mauuer familiar Co readers ot exposltiona of tbe " wagw of aap«rmteiLdence," but more bToadly and ingenioual; Uiao

CIVILIZATION AND THE MACHDIE PROCESS 321

institutions, the attitude given by the discipline of the machine technology cannot, for the present, be called a conservative attitude.

The business classes are conservative, on the whole, but such a conservative bent is, of courae, not peculiar to them. These occupations are not the only ones whose reasoning prevailingly moves on a conventional plane. Indeed, the intellectual activity of other classes, such as soldiers, politicians, the clergy, and men of fashion, moves on a plane of still older conventions ; so that if the training given by business employments is to be characterized as conaervative, that given by these other, more archaic employments should be called reactionary.^ Extreme conventionalization means

■ Individual exceptiona ai«, of course, to be found !□ ftll claasea, but there U, aft«r all, a more or less coDslstent, prevaleut olaas attitude. Ah li well known, clergymen, lawyers, soldiers, cItII Berraots, and the tike, are popularly held to be of a conservative, if not reactionary temper. This vulgar apprebensioa may be faulty in detail, and especially It may be too sweeping in Ita generalizations ; but there an, after all, tew persona not belonging to these classes who will not immediately recognize tbat tbis vulgar appraisement of them rests on substantial grounds, even though Cbe appraisement may need qualification. So, also, a conservative animus is seen to pervade all clBssea more generally In earlier times or on more arcbaic levels of culture than our own. At the same time, in those early

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