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I read B.F. Skinner, Walden Two somewhere around 40 years ago. I liked it. It's an easy read and fun and interesting for a youngster. I picked up a copy a few years ago to use in a post, so far unwritten, comparing Skinner to Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning. I posted this piece above sometime this afternoon, rushing out the door to do some work on my latest effort, A Genealogy of Left Dhimmi Fascism, a history of ideas. I got out the door with a stack of books, Walden Two being one of eight. I piled in to them when I got to the diner for coffee. I looked over 1960s copy of Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf, and some other books, before I gave a few moments to skimming over Walden Two. I got to page 15 and suddenly stopped dead. I'll quote it here. I find this amazing as a coincidence.
"We wanted an expanse of cropped grass in our front yard," Frazier explained, "but it's too close to the buildings for a regular sheep pasture. It's used a great deal by the children. In fact, we all use it as a sort of lawn. By the way"-- he turned particularly to Castle and me--"do you remember Veblen's analysis of the lawn in the Theory of the Leisure Class?"
"I do, indeed," said Castle. "It was supposed to represent a bit of choice but conspicuously unconsumed pasture." ...
"That's right," said Frazier, with a slight smile. "Well, this is our lawn.
And so on.
Which I think is an amazing coincidence. How often do I write about lawns and Thorsten Veblen's idiot ideas about anything? Or about B.F.Skinner? Today, writing about Veblen just in passing, I reread Skinner on Veblen after I'd written above about lawns. Amazing.
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