There’s more than one status game though. For example, a high status scientist might nonetheless have a low social status generally, especially if his or her high status is in an esoteric field. Wouldn’t it make sense for a rational person to reject the status judgments of the irrational and instead look for status among his peers? We might expect loup-vaillant to have some accomplishments that would set him apart from the irrational masses in the eyes of his peers—that he’s not all talk—but I doubt this would set the bar very high. He’d then be free to feel superior to most people.
It’s possible to feel superior to most people because you can recite Koran by heart even if you are a homeless beggar. It’s possible to feel superior because you can solve a Rubik’s cube faster than anybody else. There will always be some peers who would award you high status for unusual accomplishments. If that’s what you want, there are hardly any objections to be made. But from my experience, the superiority feeling quickly fades away when I realise that it is based on status game which the “inferiors” don’t wish to participate in.
There’s more than one status game though. For example, a high status scientist might nonetheless have a low social status generally, especially if his or her high status is in an esoteric field. Wouldn’t it make sense for a rational person to reject the status judgments of the irrational and instead look for status among his peers? We might expect loup-vaillant to have some accomplishments that would set him apart from the irrational masses in the eyes of his peers—that he’s not all talk—but I doubt this would set the bar very high. He’d then be free to feel superior to most people.
It’s possible to feel superior to most people because you can recite Koran by heart even if you are a homeless beggar. It’s possible to feel superior because you can solve a Rubik’s cube faster than anybody else. There will always be some peers who would award you high status for unusual accomplishments. If that’s what you want, there are hardly any objections to be made. But from my experience, the superiority feeling quickly fades away when I realise that it is based on status game which the “inferiors” don’t wish to participate in.