75 Comments

Conspicuous production is next. Making a living out of "what you love" will be the next in thing, if it isn't already.

Expand full comment

I've started to notice articles that are critical of "authenticity" as a pursuit, especially from the perspective of business and leadership. The handful of articles I am referring to have essentially claimed that being authentic can be an excuse for being lazy and refusing to develop aspects of yourself that are not your core strengths, thereby sabotaging your success in group environments. So, maybe the next status move will be more fully developing yourself, balancing your "authentic" self with your social self, so to speak.

That said, I am not sure that I look at the progression that you outlined as purely a status game (although certainly it has that component).

In addition to that, though, It seems to me that the progression of leisure, consumption, non-conformity, and authenticity as values represents an improvement in the sense that they accommodate and are accessible to a broader scope of people, albeit with some overshooting (i.e. buying authentic South American alpaca sweaters is not accessible to a broad group). If I am right that the next adopted value will be a light pendulum swing back to being sophisticated about group dynamics (without abandoning your true self but not all the way back to the super group conscious keeping-up-with-the-joneses), then it does in fact seem like our culture is on net getting closer to balancing group harmony with individual self-actualization.

But maybe this is my idealism talking.

Expand full comment

Dude, it was joke. At my own expense. I was trying to point out that I'm not immune to my own critiques. We all play status games. One tries not to get carried away or take them too seriously, but I'm not enlightened enough to leave them behind altogether. I'm really not any better than the guys who buy Ferraris to convince people they're cool. (Well, maybe a little better.)

Expand full comment

Insightful and informative comment up to the point you felt the need to punch people in the nose at the end. Your clearly to intelligent to not know that's a signal in of itself.

Are humans acting within their evolved cultural norms Phonies?

Expand full comment

Yes, you're absolutely right. I guess I should have said that status games must disguise themselves as "something else". "I love sailing my yacht -- it's fun!" "I love my Rolex -- it's a beautiful object!" "Giving to charity makes the world a better place!" "I'm making an artistic/political statement with this expensive art installation that took me ten years to build in my studio!" "Thailand has become so westernized -- I enjoy travelling to Vietnam much more now because it's not flooded with tourists" "I'm so glad I retired from the rat race at 45 -- it lets me focus on my family and develop as a person" "Veblen has written a lot about that -- far too few people have read his works". Etc etc. It's all performative. Those people are a bunch of goddam phonies.

Expand full comment

There are alternatives to fun for deniable status-seeking. For example, expiation. The deniability of status-seeking through charitable giving is based on guilt-reduction.

Expand full comment

Uh... that's what I said. They're fun. Status games are always blended into something fun, so the players have plausible deniability. That's what I just said. Having a fancy car is fun. It is also a status game. There is literally nothing that counts as a status game that isn't also appealing in some other way. That was my entire point.

Expand full comment

Polo and yachting are probably a lot of fun as well. Crazy expensive, but fun. If I was sufficiently rich I certainly would like to play polo. If I knew how to ride a horse...

Fun isn't really something that gets contaminated by status games.

Expand full comment

People also enjoy sailing yachts. And wearing cashmere sweaters. And playing polo. Status games have to be able to be passed off as "fun" -- otherwise you'd be admitting to deliberately seeking out social status, which is taboo and leads to lower status.

Expand full comment

That was a good persuasive essay.

Expand full comment

"Keeping up with hipster trends is exhausting."

There are status games going on, but people do hipster stuff because it is pleasurable and fun.

Expand full comment

The point of non conformity is to set up a new status game. To do that, you need other players. Solo non conformity is low status... it amounts to being the town loony. Conspicuous non conformity has happened, and it has happened as a coordinated movement where groups all decide to rebel in the same way at the same time, whence the standard irony that individualistic rebels aren't so individualistic.

It's true that conspicuous non conformity isn't automatically high status, because in a new status game, there are still losers: they are the ones dismissed as fakes, arrivistes and sell outs.

("Weekend white Rastafarians" in Alexei Sayles' phrase.Another example: Shoreditch Twat , a vehicle for first generation hipsters to snear at second and third generation ones:- http://en.m.wikipedia.org/w... )

Solo nonconformity doesn't attract status because it is easy, up to the point where some solo non conformity can't help it, like the town loony. The conditions for winning a new status game are difficult...you need to get in early, but not to jump the gun, That kind of coordination can only be achieved by those with plenty of the right kind of social capital...which is the point.

Expand full comment

Status is whatever attractive women like.

Expand full comment

Right, I suspect modern America is among the least status conscious places in history, but that doesn't mean it's not still pretty statusy.

Expand full comment

I just saw again Puccini's "La Boheme," which was originally set in the 1840s Left Bank. The Pacific Opera Project revival is set in a gentrifying neighborhood of Los Angeles in 2012, which works very nicely (although the hipsters have to relocate to a ski resort for a snowy scene). So competing for mates against rich men by being "cool" isn't wholly new.

But, as you say, a lot more of the world is like the Latin Quarter than in the 1840s. On the whole, this is probably a fun thing.

Expand full comment

Good point.

Keeping up uses up a lot of energy and it's hard for older people.

Expand full comment