A Reaffirmation of Hierarchy
11th April 2020
In “Who Wants to Play the Status Game?,” her Jan. 16 column at The Point, Agnes Callard, an academic philosopher at the University of Chicago, makes some interesting observations and claims. Like doctors, lawyers, and indeed the entire range of ambitious human beings, academics often find it difficult to tolerate the next fellow’s social distinction and the egotism that accompanies it. “‘Look at me,’” said Bertrand Russell, who was not a very modest man, “is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart.” But having looked at you who are so special, others may be filled with envy and resentment, nor is there anything human psychology loathes more than the judgment (especially when it’s accurate): “That person is better than me.” Hence the need for certain leveling games that serve as a kind of indispensable moral (or pseudo-moral) social glue.
If you look at Underclass people, they all have LOOK AT ME plastered all over them, from fancy decorated fingernails and bizarre tattoos to pink hair and uncomfortable but striking clothing. Such people don’t have a lot of control over what happens to them in life so they tend to focus on the little that they actually do control, their appearance (and often their political twitches). Pretty sad, really.