Vanity foul

I was reading along in my favorite theologian/historian/philologist/bishop/awesome dude, and his juxtaposition of "vanity" and "futility" was enlightening.

I'm used to hearing an Old English rendering of Ecclesiastes: "Vanity! Vanity! Everything is vanity!" Falling on today's ears, that means self-absorption and my favorite line, "I thank God I am not like other men . . ." But the root of "vanity" is "vain." Now the previous lines definitely describe vain people. But there's also the meaning of "Your resistance will be in vain! Prepare to be assimilated!"

Recent commentators have preferred to translate "Vanity!" in Ecclesiastes as "vapor." Futility, vapor, vanity/doing things in vain; they all go nicely together. But how did "vanity" in the magazine rack come to mean not "Futility Fair"?

I propose it was moralism from certain concerned parents. In their pious judgment, being too interested in oneself, one's social standing, and one's appearance was an exercise in futility. They taught their children to not "chase after the wind" (more Ecclesiastes; I'm curious why I get the feeling in that work that the Teacher wasn't emphasizing self-absorption but merely activity). Later, people's vain (futile) actions became metonymous with their conceited attitudes. Now "vanity" is understood almost exclusively as pertaining to attitudes, but the root still deals with both actions and their not-necessarily-related attitudes. I don't have to be conceited to behave in a futile way. Stupidity and laziness do just fine.