I’ve been wanting to write some stuff about social status for a long time, but I never quite had the right framing or context. Twitter is one of the worst places to do it, because the odds of being interpreted uncharitably are high. I was thinking of writing

I didn’t feel like I had much status as a kid. I like to think that I was always fairly good-looking, but this wasn’t actually appreciated very much where I’m from. I was tall and skinny, and mostly I was self-conscious about it, contorting myself to take up as little space as possible, and failing because I was so visible.

I tried to be a bit more ostentatious. I played in bands, wrote songs, became a bit of a class clown archetype. I think I thought – but I can’t be sure – that if I was going to get unwanted attention all the time whether I liked it or not, I might as well learn to like it, and get good at using it in ways that served me and my interests.

lets attempt some status kungfu

– bragging about one’s status is tacky, which diminishes your status in the eyes of the discerning

– simply ~talking~ about status is interpreted as tacky/bragging in the eyes of some but not others

The interesting thing to figure out is what I really think. What do I want? Do I want people to be impressed with me? There’s a part of me that loves that, and there’s another part of me that gets tired of it. It’s like chocolate cake, you can have too much of it. So ideally you take a bite, really savor it, and then pass it on to someone else. There’s a wisdom in that stoner motif “puff, puff, pass”.

I try to make time for little guys because I remember what it was to be a little guy who was trying to be seen/heard and couldn’t

I’ve wanted to write something else about how a king is a conduit for the honor economy of his people. The crown is a theatre prop. The king himself is a just a man, just some guy