When I say “deserved”, I mean MORALLY deserved. And yes, this is a shorthand for a mind-bogglingly complex set of concepts… but the same goes for most words. If you really want to get into what sort of characteristics would make one deserving of social status, we could do that; but I really think it’s a waste of time.
It should really be enough to point out some obvious examples where actual status does not equal deserved status. Alan Turing deserved more social status than he had: After making some of the most important contributions to scientific knowledge in history and at the same time helping to literally save the world from fascism, he was driven to suicide in prison after being chemically castrated. Donald Trump has more social status than he deserves: He is a famous billionaire and TV star even though he is an incompetent narcissist born into wealth who has never made a real contribution to humanity in his life.
It should really be enough to point out some obvious examples where actual status does not equal deserved status.
If you couldn’t use the word “deserved,” could you still write this sentence? Easily: “Here are some examples of people that I hold in higher or lower esteem than I think society in general holds them.”
You could gloss it that way, but you’d miss something very important: I think I’m RIGHT to do so. I don’t think it’s just some subjective esteem that I randomly happen to hold for some people over others. I think that it is IRRATIONAL to esteem Donald Trump (and yes, I think that most people are irrational; why else would I be on Less Wrong?).
Do capitalized words, and the confidence they represent, result in a more precise map of the territory? Or do they convince us to draw our map to suit them, rather than to suit the lay of the land?
When I say “deserved”, I mean MORALLY deserved. And yes, this is a shorthand for a mind-bogglingly complex set of concepts… but the same goes for most words. If you really want to get into what sort of characteristics would make one deserving of social status, we could do that; but I really think it’s a waste of time.
It should really be enough to point out some obvious examples where actual status does not equal deserved status. Alan Turing deserved more social status than he had: After making some of the most important contributions to scientific knowledge in history and at the same time helping to literally save the world from fascism, he was driven to suicide in prison after being chemically castrated. Donald Trump has more social status than he deserves: He is a famous billionaire and TV star even though he is an incompetent narcissist born into wealth who has never made a real contribution to humanity in his life.
If you couldn’t use the word “deserved,” could you still write this sentence? Easily: “Here are some examples of people that I hold in higher or lower esteem than I think society in general holds them.”
You could gloss it that way, but you’d miss something very important: I think I’m RIGHT to do so. I don’t think it’s just some subjective esteem that I randomly happen to hold for some people over others. I think that it is IRRATIONAL to esteem Donald Trump (and yes, I think that most people are irrational; why else would I be on Less Wrong?).
Do capitalized words, and the confidence they represent, result in a more precise map of the territory? Or do they convince us to draw our map to suit them, rather than to suit the lay of the land?