Thorstein Veblen：The Theory of the Leisure Class, Excerpt 11

Under this common-sense barbarian appreciation of worth or honour, the taking of life--the killing of formidable competitors, whether brute or human--is honourable in the highest degree. And this high office of slaughter, as an expression of the slayer's prepotence, casts a glamour of worth over every act of slaughter and over all the tools and accessories of the act. Arms are honourable, and the use of them, even in seeking the life of the meanest creatures of the fields, becomes a honorific employment. At the same time, employment in industry becomes correspondingly odious, and, in the common-sense apprehension, the handling of the tools and implements of industry falls beneath the dignity of able-bodied men. Labour becomes irksome.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/833
Locator：Excerpt 11 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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