I often feel that people don’t get how the sucking up thing works. Not only does it not matter that it is transparent, that is part of the point. There is simultaneously common knowledge of the sucking up and common knowledge that those in the inner party don’t acknowledge the sucking up, that’s part of what the inner party membership consists of. People outside can accuse the insiders of nakedly sucking up and the insiders can just politely smile at them while carrying on. Sucking up can be what deference networks look like from the outside when we don’t particularly like any of the people involved or what they are doing. But their hierarchy visibly produces their own aims, so more fools we.
I often feel that people don’t get how the sucking up thing works. Not only does it not matter that it is transparent, that is part of the point. There is simultaneously common knowledge of the sucking up and common knowledge that those in the inner party don’t acknowledge the sucking up, that’s part of what the inner party membership consists of. People outside can accuse the insiders of nakedly sucking up and the insiders can just politely smile at them while carrying on. Sucking up can be what deference networks look like from the outside when we don’t particularly like any of the people involved or what they are doing. But their hierarchy visibly produces their own aims, so more fools we.