From Politics and Culture, a special issue on revisiting Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class, including Aaron Stuvland (George Mason): Thorstein Veblen and the “Spirit” of Capitalism; Gavin Mueller (George Mason): The Hipster Labor of Conspicuous Leisure; and Andrew Pendakis (Alberta): Poor Plenum: Veblen and The Economics of Philosophy. Eliane Glaser on why people act against their best interests. Meet Eric Hardmeyer, Occupy Wall Street's favorite banker. “Something for all, so that none may escape”: Christian Garland on reworking the critique of consumption. Are straight people born that way? The best scientific argument we have for the innateness of straightness is that evolution would favor it, but a poll of sexologists raises some interesting questions about arousal. Supervolcanoes are one of nature’s most destructive forces, but given that there are no recorded observations of super-eruptions — the last occurred 74,000 years ago in Indonesia — scientists don’t fully understand how they work. A new kind of novel is taking over — is the “hindered narrator” a step forward for fiction?
