And I’ve been thinking about the role intellectuals play in social change lately too. It seems like there’s a tension between the radical revolutionary role that Marx thought intellectuals would play and then Veblen’s idea that the things people learn from elite educations are really just markers of belonging to a class with plenty of leisure time.

I guess the difference between their views is that for Marx the intellectuals actually have ideas and follow through on them politically, whereas… well, I’m not sure exactly what Veblen thinks is the content of academics’ ideas, actually. He was one, after all!