The prior post regarding the Veblen effect in the economy of ideas needed an example – and this seems like a great one. Here is a religion (in the loosest sense of the term) which is so patently wrong as to be … well… fashionable. Scientology: Religion as Veblen good.

The term has escaped me time and time again over the last few weeks – I searched and wracked my brain to figure it out (without success) until now. As will usually occur, the words spontaneously came to me de repente – without warning or explanation – but I knew I had finally remembered what [...]