第62章 Chapter 8 Industrial Exemption and Conservatism(4)

The leisure class is in great measure sheltered from the躩躶tress of those economic exigencies which prevail in any modem， highly organized industrial community. The exigencies of the struggle for the means of life are less exacting 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 forfeiture 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 conserve what is obsolescent. 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 imputes no unworthy motive. The opposition of the class to changes in the cultural scheme is instinctive， 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 constrained 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 decorative value. It has become prescriptive to such an extent that an adherence to conservative views is comprised as a matter of course in our notions of respectability； and it is imperatively incumbent 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 reprobation 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 innovator is spokesman -- as may easily happen if the evils which he seeks to remedy are sufficiently 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 virtue of its high position as the avatar of good form， the wealthier class comes to exert a retarding 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 stiffen 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.