tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/status-9007/articlesStatus – The Conversation2024-02-26T13:09:06Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2233992024-02-26T13:09:06Z2024-02-26T13:09:06ZRelationship anarchy is about creating bonds that suit people, not social conventions<p>By its very nature, friendship is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/anarchy">anarchic</a>: it has few rules and is not regulated by the government. Our friendships are usually egalitarian, flexible and non-exclusive. We treat our friends as individuals and care about their interests. We support them and don’t tell them what to do; our friendships fit around, rather than govern, our lives. </p>
<p>But interestingly, friendship is the exception when it comes to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/10/people-who-prioritize-friendship-over-romance/616779/">intimacy</a>. Few of us want anarchic love lives, or to treat our children as equals. We gravitate instead towards more rigid, hierarchical, structured forms of intimacy in these relationships. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/i-have-4-partners-and-several-comet-romances-this-is-what-its-like-to-be-a-relationship-anarchist_uk_64ba8dcfe4b093f07cb48251">Relationship anarchists</a> do not hold with these ideas. They argue we must try harder to relate as equals, reject hierarchy between relationships and accept that intimate life can take many forms. </p>
<p>Critics would suggest relationship anarchy is just a lifestyle – an attempt to evade commitment. But the concept is best understood as political, and a development of the core themes of anarchist thinking. This reflects the values and practices involved, and reminds us that the flourishing of intimacy might require radical change. </p>
<p>These core themes include rejecting the idea that there should be one dominant form of authority – like a president, boss or patriarch; wariness of social class or status which arbitrarily privileges some people other others; and a deep respect for the idea that individuals should be able to govern their own lives and support each other. Applied to intimate relationships, these themes define relationship anarchy. </p>
<p>But political anarchism is not above violence and disorder. As someone whose work explores the philosophy of love, sex and relationships – and different approaches to intimacy – I view it as an attitude towards our social predicament where people try to relate as equals and reject unnecessary constraints. </p>
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<h2>Equals without constraints</h2>
<p>Relationship anarchists critique society and imagine alternatives. Their main target is the idea that there are different kinds of relationships and some are more important than others.</p>
<p>They reject how relationships appear in the media; good relationships needn’t last forever, be exclusive, between two people, domestic, involve romantic love or practical entanglement. This critical eye also extends to our attitudes towards children, animals and the environment. </p>
<p>Relationship anarchy’s aversion to hierarchy separates it from <a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/relationships/a46109633/what-is-a-swinger/">swinging</a> or forms of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/japp.12240">polyamory</a> which distinguish between sex and romance, <a href="https://www.morethantwo.com/polyconfigurations.html">“primary” and “secondary” partners</a>, or which think the government should privilege some relationships through marriage law. </p>
<p>The practical heart of relationship anarchy is the idea that we design relationships to suit us, not mirror social expectations. Do we want to share a home? Is sexual intimacy important? If so, what kind exactly? This process also involves creating a framework to guide our broader intimate life. How will we choose together? How and when can we revise our framework? What about disagreements?</p>
<p>Relationship anarchists will disagree about the content of these frameworks. Can two relationship anarchists agree to be romantically exclusive, for example, set rules for each other, or decide to never revise their framework? Should they retain, repurpose or reject common labels such as “partner”?</p>
<p>My own view is that agreements are acceptable if they support our <a href="https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=romantic-agency-loving-well-in-modern-life--9781509551521">ability to be intimate</a>, but we should embrace “minimal non-monogamy” and remain open to the possibility our desires will change. </p>
<h2>Community and self-development</h2>
<p>Community is central to relationship anarchy. From queer feminist Andie Nordgren’s “<a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/andie-nordgren-the-short-instructional-manifesto-for-relationship-anarchy">short instructional manifesto</a>” – which jumpstarted relationship anarchy – to <a href="https://ia803109.us.archive.org/14/items/rad2019zine/RAD%202019%20Zine%20for%20online%20reading.pdf">zines</a> like Communities Not Couples, the <a href="https://violetbeau00.medium.com/relationship-anarchy-smorgasbord-practical-applications-78ad8d911b0b">relationship “smorgasbord”</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/decolonizing.love/?hl=en">social media influencers</a>, relationship anarchists educate each other and share resources. </p>
<p>They also embrace <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2722-mutual-aid">supporting each other</a> when social institutions are inadequate. This might involve providing money, establishing accessible community spaces, sourcing contraception and caregiving.</p>
<p>Relationship anarchy requires self-development. Since we are shaped by our social context, we often lack the skills needed to overhaul our relationships, whether that’s communicating effectively or managing emotions such as jealousy and insecurity.</p>
<p>Relationship anarchists embrace the idea that we cannot behave now in ways that would be <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Prefigurative+Politics:+Building+Tomorrow+Today-p-9781509535910">unacceptable in our ideal society</a>. We cannot be callous or dishonest in trying to bring about open and equal relationships. Instead, trying to embody our desired changes in our actions helps us develop the skills needed to ensure these changes are sustainable. </p>
<p>Talk of relationship anarchy often prompts objections. Liberals think government involvement in private life prevents harm, and that common social norms and ideals of relationships prevent anxiety. A relationship anarchist would ask us to consider the real source of these worries. </p>
<p>We are well able to harm each other within existing government frameworks: police, immigration, social and health services often harm people in unconventional relationships through policies that <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/21/orphaned-by-decree-italy-same-sex-parents-react-losing-rights">do not recognise the family life of non-heterosexual people</a>. Or which make it hard for immigrant families to be together, or deny visitation rights to unmarried people, for example.</p>
<p>Community networks of care are active in resisting and repairing these harms, and their efforts are evidence that we can successfully oversee our own needs when it comes to intimacy. </p>
<p>Similarly, a more active approach to our relationships, where we reflect on our needs and desires, set boundaries and communicate, <a href="https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/polysecure-9781914484957">builds confidence and decreases anxiety</a>. A realistic and flexible attitude towards intimacy makes it harder to trip on the <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2019/09/why-love-ends/">gap between ideals and reality</a>.</p>
<p>Realism, not revolution, is at the heart of relationship anarchy. Social criticism can be radical – ranging from love and domesticity to childcare, companionship and co-operation – but efforts to remould our relationships should be done with care. We can both expose social contradictions and oppressive laws and accept common ground with other views and initiatives.</p>
<p>Most of all, we should be wary of attempts to cast relationship anarchy as a fad or lifestyle. It is political – a commitment to nurture agency when it comes to intimacy. Like conversation, relationship anarchy is a process; it can be messy, loud, and unpredictable, but it can change us entirely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223399/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Brunning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Relationship anarchists argue that we should relate to one another as equals and accept that intimacy can take many forms.Luke Brunning, Lecturer in Applied Ethics, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2014442023-03-13T12:25:52Z2023-03-13T12:25:52ZVinyl record sales keep spinning and spinning – with no end in sight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514711/original/file-20230310-457-ux6tfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C18%2C6011%2C3992&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are far easier ways to consume music than buying records, which takes time, money and effort.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/massapequa-park-n-y-a-person-looks-through-a-selection-of-news-photo/1346015617?phrase=vinyl record store long island&adppopup=true">Alejandra Villa Loraca/Newsday via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past decade, vinyl records have made a major comeback. People purchased US$1.2 billion of records in 2022, a 20% jump from the previous year. </p>
<p>Not only did sales rise, but they also surpassed CD sales for the first time since 1988, according to <a href="https://www.riaa.com/2022-year-end-music-industry-revenue-report-riaa/">a new report</a> from the Recording Industry Association of America.</p>
<p>Who saw that coming?</p>
<p>I certainly didn’t. In the mid-1990s, I sold off my family’s very large collection of records over my wife’s protests. I convinced her we needed the space, even if the buyer was picking up the whole stash for a song. </p>
<p>Back then, of course, there were far fewer options for listening to music – it was years before <a href="https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9986-the-year-in-streaming-2016/">on-demand streaming</a> and <a href="https://www.shockwave-sound.com/blog/music-on-the-move-a-short-history-of-mobile-listening/">smartphones</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bu.edu/questrom/profile/jay-zagorsky/">I now teach at a business school</a> and <a href="http://businessmacroeconomics.com/">follow the economy’s</a> latest trends. Sales of records have been increasing since 2007, and the data shows the vinyl record industry’s rebound still has not peaked. Last year, the music industry sold 41.3 million albums, more than in any year since 1988.</p>
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<p>This resurgence is just one chapter in a broader story about the growing popularity of older technologies. Not only are <a href="http://www.the-standard.org/life/vinyl-records-making-a-comeback-after-30-years-of-being-behind-cds/article_9108143e-3bdd-11ea-be0d-97edd557218b.html">LP records coming back</a>, but so are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2018/09/24/sales-are-booming-manhattan-typewriter-store-mostly-thanks-young-people-tom-hanks/">manual typewriters</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/12/24/board-game-popularity/">board games</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-gen-z-ers-drawn-to-old-digital-cameras-198854">digital cameras from the late 1990s and early 2000s</a>.</p>
<p>There are many <a href="https://blog.technavio.com/blog/reasons-behind-upsurge-vinyl-record-sales">theories about why records</a> are <a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/culture/music/why-is-vinyl-making-a-comeback">making a comeback</a>. </p>
<p>Most of them miss the point about their appeal. </p>
<h2>Why records and not CDs?</h2>
<p>One suggestion is that sales have been spurred by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p057l522">baby boomers</a>, many of whom <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/09/the-pace-of-boomer-retirements-has-accelerated-in-the-past-year/">are now entering retirement</a> and are eager to tap into the nostalgia of their youth.</p>
<p>Data shows this theory is not true. </p>
<p>First, the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/charts/vinyl-albums">top-selling vinyl albums right now are current artists</a>, not classic bands. As of this writing, <a href="https://illustrationchronicles.com/jamie-hewlett-gorillaz-and-the-enduring-evolution-of-pop">Gorillaz, a band formed in the late 1990s</a>, was at the top of the vinyl charts. </p>
<p>Second, <a href="https://www.riaa.com/reports/2021-u-s-consumer-music-profile-musicwatch-inc/">data from the recording industry</a> shows the most likely person to buy a LP record is in Gen Z – people born from 1997 to 2012.</p>
<p>Another theory is that records are cheap. While that might have been true in the past, today’s vinyl records command a premium. “Cracker Island,” the Gorillaz album that is currently topping the vinyl sales charts, <a href="https://usstore.gorillaz.com/products/cracker-island-standard-vinyl">lists for almost $22</a> – twice the cost of the CD. Plus, subscribing to an online service like Spotify for 15 bucks a month gives you access to millions of tracks. </p>
<p>A third explanation for the resurgence is that <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/does-vinyl-really-sound-better/">people claim records have better sound quality</a> than digital audio files. Records are analog recordings that capture the entire sound wave. Digital files are sampled at periodic intervals, which means only part of the sound wave is captured.</p>
<p>In addition to sampling, many <a href="https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/what-data-compression-does-your-music">streaming services and most stored audio files compress the sound</a> information of a recording. <a href="https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/data-compression/lossy/mp3/concept.htm">Compression allows people</a> to put more songs on their phones and listen to streaming services without using up much bandwidth. However, <a href="https://electronics.sony.com/hi-res-audio-mp3-cd-sound-quality-comparison">compression eliminates some sounds</a>.</p>
<p>While LP records are not sampled or compressed, they do <a href="https://www.perfectvinylforever.com/faq">develop snap, crackle and popping sounds</a> after being played multiple times. Records also skip, which is something that doesn’t happen with digital music.</p>
<p>If you’re really going for quality, CDs are usually a superior digital format because <a href="https://www.gearpatrol.com/tech/audio/a731474/reasons-to-buy-cds/">the audio data is not compressed</a> and has much better fidelity than records. </p>
<p>Yet even though CDs are higher quality, <a href="https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/">CDs sales have been steadily falling</a> since their peak in 2000.</p>
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<h2>The ultimate status symbol</h2>
<p>In my view, the most likely reason for the resurgence of records was identified by an economist over a century ago. </p>
<p>In the late 1890s, <a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Veblen.html">Thorstein Veblen</a> looked at spending in society and wrote an influential book called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class">The Theory of the Leisure Class</a>.”</p>
<p>In it, he explained that people often buy items as a way to gain and convey status. One of Veblen’s key ideas is that not everything in life is purchased because it is easy, fun or high quality.</p>
<p>Sometimes harder, more time-consuming or exotic items offer more status.</p>
<p>A cake is a great example. Say you offer to bring a cake to a party. You can buy a bakery-made cake that will look perfect and take only a few minutes to purchase. Or you could bake one at home. Even if it’s delicious, it won’t look as nice and will take hours to make. </p>
<p>But if your friends are like mine, they’ll gush over the homemade cake and not mention the perfect store-bought one.</p>
<p>Buying and playing vinyl records is becoming a status symbol. </p>
<p>Today, playing music is effortless. Just shout your request at a smart speaker, like Siri or Alexa, or touch an app on your smartphone.</p>
<p>Playing a record on a turntable takes time and effort. Building your collection requires thoughtful deliberation and money. A record storage cube alongside an accompanying record player also makes for some nice living room decor.</p>
<p>And now I – the uncool professor that I am – find myself bemoaning the loss of all of those albums I sold years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Their popularity can’t be explained by the nostalgia of baby boomers or superior sound quality. So what’s going on?Jay L. Zagorsky, Clinical Associate Professor, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1868892022-08-07T13:03:45Z2022-08-07T13:03:45ZWe need a better understanding of race, ‘status’ and indigeneity in Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477959/original/file-20220807-71528-ob8b2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C1%2C989%2C630&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many people were excluded from Indian status.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Indigenous Services Canada)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/we-need-a-better-understanding-of-race---status--and-indigeneity-in-canada" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Queen’s University recently <a href="https://www.queensu.ca/indigenous/sites/oiiwww/files/uploaded_files/FPG%20Queens%20Report%20Final%20July%207.pdf">released its highly anticipated report</a> after a year-long exploration into the institution’s approaches to indigeneity. </p>
<p>The report came about after a call was made by hundreds of Indigenous academics and community members following the news that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/queens-university-indigenous-identify-1.6082840">several white settler faculty claiming indigeneity were, in fact, “pretendians.”</a> </p>
<p>The report offers several recommendations that touch on everything from verification processes to developing a more robust Indigenous Studies program. While some Indigenous academics and community members welcomed the report, others suggested it relies too heavily on “colonial, imposed cards” and the concept of “Indian status.”</p>
<p>This critique based on cards and status is confusing, as the report is clear that individuals who have been disconnected from their communities due to colonialism have other avenues to demonstrate their genuine, integral connections. The report highlights the fact that we need a better understanding of race, Indian status and indigeneity in Canada.</p>
<h2>What does ‘pretendian’ mean?</h2>
<p>The term “pretendian” is new and stems from what renowned Indigenous scholar, Vine Deloria Jr., termed, “<a href="http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/Books/CusterDiedForYourSinsAnIndianManifesto1969Deloria.pdf">the Indian Grandmother Complex</a>.”</p>
<p>Recently, president of the Indigenous Bar Association, Drew Lafond, penned <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-problem-with-labelling-people-pretendians/">an opinion editorial</a> suggesting the term “pretendian” is problematic. He said this is because the first people labelled as “pretendians” were “individuals who were unable to produce a status card under the Indian Act to ‘prove’ that they were Indigenous.” </p>
<p>But the word is actually a modern portmanteau that has gained traction with an established body of <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300264845/playing-indian/">critical academic literature</a>. </p>
<p>Lafond also suggested that the act of calling someone a “pretendian” has led to divisive and toxic interpretations of what it means to be Indigenous.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stolen-identities-what-does-it-mean-to-be-indigenous-podcast-ep-8-166248">Stolen identities: What does it mean to be Indigenous? Podcast EP 8</a>
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<h2>Indian status and blood quantum</h2>
<p>While the concept of Indian status was, and continues to be, a tool that is imposed based on how much “native blood” one has, it is dangerous to centre Indian status, and not white entitlement and settler colonialism, as the issues plaguing tenuous or false claims to Indigenous identity. It is also dangerous to suggest that these conversations are undermining Indigenous self-determination. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-facing-a-settler-colonial-crisis-not-an-indigenous-identity-crisis-175136">We are facing a settler colonial crisis, not an Indigenous identity crisis</a>
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<p>Characterizing all individuals who have been called “pretendians” as simply people who don’t qualify for Indian status is misleading and has contributed to a rise in “anti-status” rhetoric that is, quite frankly, racist. </p>
<p>While Indian status is an imposed mechanism, “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261/so-what-exactly-is-blood-quantum">blood quantum</a>” cannot be disentangled from race. </p>
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<p>There are hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people across this country who are visibly racialized and not only hold Indian status, but also carry the trauma of generations of Indigenous family members who have endured the Indian Act and many other forms of colonial violence. </p>
<p>While it is true that <a href="https://opentextbc.ca/indigenizationfoundations/chapter/the-indian-act/">many people were excluded from Indian status</a> under the Indian Act because of gender or kinship ties to multiple Black and racialized communities, some of these issues have been corrected due to tireless work, often led by Indigenous women — like <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mary-two-axe-earley">Mary Two-Axe Earley</a>, <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sandra-lovelace-nicholas">Sandra Lovelace Nicholas</a>, <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mcivor-case">Sharon McIvor</a>, <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jeannette-vivian-lavell">Jeannette Corbiere Lavell</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/woman-wins-32-year-fight-for-indian-status-1.4078317">Lynn Gehl</a>. </p>
<p>The important work of addressing the erasure of Black and other racialized Indigenous kin through state mechanisms is ongoing. This is why challenging Indigenous identity fraud in academia must name and focus explicitly on structures of whiteness, white entitlement and settler colonialism so we don’t recreate the harms of past policies. </p>
<h2>Misclaiming ‘non-status’</h2>
<p>Ongoing efforts <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rMYGACf5Rs">to challenge Indian status exclusion</a> show us that there’s a massive difference between 1) someone who is a non-status First Nations person and 2) a white settler who has perhaps one or two Indigenous ancestors from before the concept of Indian status was introduced. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100014433/1535469348029">term non-status</a> is meant to reflect the experiences of people who carry a real and intimate connection to historical and contemporary colonial and non-colonial expressions of recognition. This is often expressed through both their exclusion to specific agreements (like the Indian Act) and their inclusion and acceptance within traditional forms of Indigenous kinship.</p>
<p>It is not a generic category for anyone who locates one or two distant ancestors. </p>
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<p>All institutions must be wary of and challenge the ideas that support the notion that Indian status = colonial, therefore any person inhabiting their Indian status = bad. </p>
<p>Because status is an imposed race-based mechanism based on “Indian blood,” many (not all) Indigenous people who hold Indian status in this country are racialized people and know what it means to walk into a settler colonial space and speak volumes as an Indigenous person without uttering a word.</p>
<p>Institutions that aim to advance equity, anti-racism and decolonization must centre the principles of integrity, truth and structural transformation. They must ask pressing questions like: Do your Indigenous employees include racialized, gender-diverse and socioeconomically diverse Indigenous people?</p>
<p>These questions don’t get answered when the loudest voices within the room say, “being Indigenous is not about race or status.” </p>
<p>The focus on status disrespects the millions of Indigenous people who struggle to survive in universities and other settler institutions while having to endure everyday forms of anti-Indigenous racialized violence. </p>
<p>The way forward must centre the lived experiences of Indigenous Peoples, while also refusing the efforts of settlers to re-centre themselves in the necessary transformations of colonial institutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186889/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celeste Pedri-Spade does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Challenging Indigenous identity fraud in academia must name and focus explicitly on structures of whiteness, white entitlement and settler colonialism so we don’t recreate the harms of past policies.Celeste Pedri-Spade, Associate Professor & Queen’s National Scholar in Indigenous Studies, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1767922022-02-23T15:34:38Z2022-02-23T15:34:38ZShow me the money: Employees not only want better pay, they want status<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447034/original/file-20220217-17-gnekqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C550%2C4091%2C2480&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Over 50 per cent of working Americans continue to be dissatisfied with their 'unjust' incomes. They say it isn't sufficient to meet their family expenses.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/show-me-the-money--employees-not-only-want-better-pay--they-want-status" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>There has been endless chatter about the Great [<em>insert pandemic-related work trend here</em>].</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/great-resignation-accelerating/620382/">Resignation</a>. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/01/25/1075115539/the-great-resignation-more-like-the-great-renegotiation">Renegotiation</a>. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/04/companies-are-reinventing-rules-as-employees-seek-remote-work-and-flexible-hours.html">Reshuffle</a>. </p>
<p>Regardless of the descriptor used, employees in the United States are purportedly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/business/economy/job-openings-coronavirus.html">re-evaluating</a> the role of work in their lives. While some of this is related to deeper <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/10/19/1047032996/why-are-so-many-americans-quitting-their-jobs">existential questions</a> — like “What am I doing with my life?” or “Is this really how I want to be spending most of my waking hours?” — there might be a much simpler and more practical explanation for the <a href="https://time.com/6051955/work-after-covid-19/">take-this-job-and-reinvent-it</a> wave.</p>
<p>A classic quote from the 1996 film <em>Jerry Maguire</em> captures it well. Sports agent Jerry Maguire (played by Tom Cruise) has been fired and as he embarks to become an independent agent he desperately tries to retain one of his clients, football star Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.). </p>
<p>Tidwell shouts his demands: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFrag8ll85w">Show me the money!</a>” He adds: “I have a family to support, Jerry!”</p>
<h2>Earning enough to make ends meet</h2>
<p>Given what Americans say about their earnings, you’d think many would be bellowing like Tidwell. From Jan. 19 to Feb. 2, 2022, my research assistant and I partnered with Angus Reid Global to field a national survey of 2,000 working Americans. We asked: <em>Do you feel that the income from your job alone is enough to meet your family’s usual monthly expenses and bills?</em> </p>
<p>An astonishing 54.8 percent said “no.” </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A list of household expenses and income is placed on top of a bill with a calculator beside it" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447393/original/file-20220219-67390-5bhg5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447393/original/file-20220219-67390-5bhg5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447393/original/file-20220219-67390-5bhg5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447393/original/file-20220219-67390-5bhg5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447393/original/file-20220219-67390-5bhg5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447393/original/file-20220219-67390-5bhg5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447393/original/file-20220219-67390-5bhg5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Over the past two decades, more than half of surveyed American workers weren’t able to make ends meet with their job earnings alone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Considering the ominous news <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/learning/lesson-plans/lesson-of-the-day-inflation-has-arrived-heres-what-you-need-to-know.html">about inflation</a> lately, we figured that this unfavourable perception has spiked from previous years. But looking back through two decades of U.S. data from the <a href="https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/2817/vshow">General Social Survey (GSS)</a> — a highly reputable national survey of Americans — we were surprised by how prevalent and stable the “no” responses have been. </p>
<p>In 2018, the last time the GSS asked this question, 50.8 percent of American workers reported that the income from their job was not enough to make ends meet. And the percentage was even higher in previous years: 52.9 in 2014; 53.4 in 2006 and 55.9 in 2002. The highest on record — 58.2 per cent — occurred in 2010 at the tail end of the Great Recession.</p>
<h2>How fair is what you earn?</h2>
<p>But “show me the money” isn’t only about having enough for life’s necessities. It’s also about the sense of fairness — what scholars refer to as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.09.080183.001245">distributive justice</a>. In our survey, we asked: <em>How fair is what you earn on your job in comparison to others doing the same type of work you do?</em></p>
<p>While 37.9 per cent feel they are paid appropriately, 52.7 per cent feel they are paid less than they deserve. On this indicator, the shift is substantial. <a href="https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/2816/vshow">Between 2002 and 2018</a>, 40.6 per cent on average have described their pay as being somewhat less or much less than they deserve, with 2010 again being the outlier at 46.2 percent.</p>
<p>We need to earn enough to live, and the amount should be just. But there’s another element of pay that reflects something deeper. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038781">A fundamental human motive: status</a>. Justifying his “show me the money” plea, Tidwell roars: “I’m a role model, Jerry,” adding “it’s a very personal … very important thing.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graphical representation of people standing on piles of differing amount of money." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447392/original/file-20220219-42890-13sd2ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447392/original/file-20220219-42890-13sd2ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447392/original/file-20220219-42890-13sd2ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447392/original/file-20220219-42890-13sd2ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447392/original/file-20220219-42890-13sd2ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447392/original/file-20220219-42890-13sd2ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447392/original/file-20220219-42890-13sd2ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Income, which can often be distributed unfairly, determines social status.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Status matters. Not only in the eyes of others, but in our own self-evaluations too. Sociologists refer to this as <a href="http://sparqtools.org/mobility-measure/macarthur-scale-of-subjective-social-status-adult-version/">subjective social status</a>. To measure it, we told respondents to think of a ladder. At the top (10) are the people who are the best off. At the bottom (1) are the people who are the worst off. And, we asked: <em>Where would you put yourself at the present time?</em></p>
<p>On average, American workers report a 6 on the status ladder. But those who report insufficient earnings and feel severely underpaid score significantly lower (4.9), compared to those who have sufficient earnings and feel their pay is appropriate (6.6). That difference holds regardless of education, occupation, income and job authority. </p>
<h2>Can money buy happiness?</h2>
<p>Some say <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/107/38/16489">money can’t buy happiness</a>, but it goes a long way to providing status. And status often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.07.014">translates into happiness</a>. </p>
<p>In our survey, Americans who don’t earn enough to make ends meet and feel underpaid are less happy and hopeful about the future. Life, for them, is less enjoyable. Inadequate earnings and feeling underpaid also erode happiness more strongly than the objective indicators of low socio-economic standing do. And one’s position on the status ladder eclipses all other socio-economic indicators in predicting happiness.</p>
<p>Our sample doesn’t include any professional football stars. But it does contain a broad cross-section of American workers — doggie daycare assistants, accountants, truck drivers, software engineers, sous chefs, electricians, candle-makers and on and on. All have a few things in common: They want to earn enough money to make ends meet, they want to be paid fairly for the work they do and they all share the fundamental human motive for status.</p>
<p>As dated as <em>Jerry Maguire</em> feels, “show me the money” still resonates. Maybe it always will. Given how consistent these indicators of income dissatisfaction have been for the past few decades, perhaps the Great Re-evaluation of work should focus first and foremost on compensation. Channel your inner Rod Tidwell!</p>
<p><em>Xin Ming Matthew Zhou, an undergraduate research assistant in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, co-authored this article</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Schieman receives funding from Social Science and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Many Americans regularly report that they don’t make enough to support their families. Status plays a role — while money can’t buy happiness, it can bring status, which can lead to happiness.Scott Schieman, Professor of Sociology and Canada Research Chair, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1560272021-03-11T13:29:43Z2021-03-11T13:29:43ZHow the quest for significance and respect underlies the white supremacist movement, conspiracy theories and a range of other problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388886/original/file-20210310-23-1oud1kk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C2941%2C1962&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Unemployed Blackjewel coal miners, their family members and activists man a blockade along railroad tracks leading to their old mine on Aug. 23, 2019, in Cumberland, Kentucky. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/unemployed-blackjewel-coal-miners-their-family-members-and-news-photo/1169799870?adppopup=true">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Joe Biden’s fundamental pitch to America has been about dignity and respect. He never tires of repeating his father’s words that “a job is about more than a paycheck, it is about … dignity … about respect … being able to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘<a href="https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/1202972212384288768?lang=en">Everything is going to be OK</a>.’”</p>
<p>In strikingly similar language, Princeton economists <a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bKON6gYAAAAJ&hl=en">Anne Case</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rvFjcQIAAAAJ&hl=en">Angus Deaton</a> affirm that “jobs are not just the source of money.” When jobs are lost, they wrote in 2020, “it is the loss of meaning, of dignity, of pride, and of self respect … <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism">that brings on despair, not just or even primarily the loss of money</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://psyc.umd.edu/facultyprofile/kruglanski/arie">I am a psychologist</a> who studies <a href="https://scholar.google.gr/citations?user=Trd2BdsAAAAJ&hl=en">the human quest for significance and respect</a>. My research reveals that this basic motivation is a major force in human affairs. It shapes the course of world history and determines the destiny of nations. It underlies some of the chief challenges society is facing. Among others, these are: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism">The suicides – known as “deaths of despair” – of working-class Americans</a> </li>
<li>White supremacist movements </li>
<li>Systemic racism </li>
<li>Islamist terrorism</li>
<li>The proliferation of conspiracy theories</li>
<li>The growing rift in the Republican Party between moderates and extremists</li>
</ul>
<p>In all these cases, people’s actions, opinions and attitudes aim, often unconsciously, to satisfy their fundamental need to count, to be recognized and respected. </p>
<p>The very term “supremacism” betrays concern for superior standing. So do names like “Proud Boys” or “Oath Keepers.” Systemic racism is rooted in the motivation to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/885878564/what-systemic-racism-means-and-the-way-it-harms-communities">put down one race to elevate another</a>. Islamist terrorism targets the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032615">alleged belittlers of a religion</a>. Conspiracy theories identify alleged culprits <a href="https://www.springer.com/us/book/9781461298021">plotting the subjugation and dishonor of their victims</a>. And the <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90553503/its-time-to-respect-that-republicans-care-about-only-one-thing-winning">extremist faction of the Republican Party cares exclusively about winning, no holds barred</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388889/original/file-20210310-19-70s8h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Torch-bearing white men marching at night, shouting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388889/original/file-20210310-19-70s8h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388889/original/file-20210310-19-70s8h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388889/original/file-20210310-19-70s8h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388889/original/file-20210310-19-70s8h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388889/original/file-20210310-19-70s8h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388889/original/file-20210310-19-70s8h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388889/original/file-20210310-19-70s8h0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chanting ‘White lives matter! You will not replace us!’ and ‘Jews will not replace us!’ several hundred white nationalists and white supremacists march through the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville on Aug. 10, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chanting-white-lives-matter-you-will-not-replace-us-and-news-photo/831221784?adppopup=true">Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Triggering the quest</h2>
<p>This quest for significance and respect must first be awakened before it can drive behavior. We don’t strive for significance 24/7. </p>
<p>The quest can be triggered by the experience of significant loss through humiliation and failure. When we suffer such a loss, we desperately seek to regain significance and respect. We are then keen to embrace any narrative that tells us how, and to follow leaders who show us the way. </p>
<p>The quest for significance can also be triggered by an opportunity for substantial gain – becoming a hero, a martyr, a superstar.</p>
<p>Over the past several decades, many Americans have experienced a stinging loss of significance and respect. Social scientists examined the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217721174">perception of social class in the United States between 1972 and 2010</a>. The results of their research were striking: In the 1970s, most Americans viewed themselves as comfortably middle class, defined at the time by conduct and manners – being a good neighbor and a good member of the community, exhibiting proper behavior.</p>
<p>In contrast, by the 2000s, membership in the middle class was determined primarily by income. And because incomes have stagnated over the past half-century, by 2010 many Americans (particularly the lower-income ones) lost their middle-class identity entirely. </p>
<p>Small wonder, then, that they resonated to the Trump campaign slogan that promised to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12647">make America (or Americans) “great again</a>.” </p>
<h2>Piling on</h2>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/How-to-turn-the-coronavirus-anxiety-into-15136037.php">compounds people’s sense of fragility</a> and insignificance. </p>
<p>Isolation from loved ones, the danger to our own health and the dread of an economic disaster are all stressors that make a person feel weak and vulnerable. They increase the attraction to ideas that offer quick fixes for loss of significance and respect. </p>
<p>Though the ideas that promise restoration of significance and dignity range widely, they share an important core: They <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032615">depict the promotion of different social values as paths to significance</a>. Promoting freedom and democracy, defending one’s nation or one’s religion, advancing one’s political party – all aim to earn respect and dignity in communities that cherish those values.</p>
<p>When the quest for significance and respect is intensified, other considerations such as comfort, relationships or compassion are sidelined. Any actions that promote significance are then seen as legitimate. That includes actions that would otherwise seem reprehensible: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000260">violence, aggression, torture or terrorism</a>. </p>
<p>An intense quest for significance does not invite reprehensible actions directly. But it boosts a person’s readiness to tolerate and enact them for the sake of significance and dignity. </p>
<p>The path ultimately taken depends on the narrative that identifies significance-bestowing actions in a given situation. Depending on one’s moral perspective, such actions may be seen as “good,” “bad” or “ugly.” One might have an entirely different moral evaluation of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Proud Boys and yet recognize that, psychologically, both represent routes to significance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388895/original/file-20210310-17-1hmj7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gallows with a noose hanging on it at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388895/original/file-20210310-17-1hmj7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388895/original/file-20210310-17-1hmj7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388895/original/file-20210310-17-1hmj7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388895/original/file-20210310-17-1hmj7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388895/original/file-20210310-17-1hmj7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388895/original/file-20210310-17-1hmj7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388895/original/file-20210310-17-1hmj7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A noose is seen on makeshift gallows erected on Jan. 6 at the Capitol before Trump supporters violently stormed a session of Congress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/noose-is-seen-on-makeshift-gallows-as-supporters-of-us-news-photo/1230473117?adppopup=true">Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The allure of violence</h2>
<p>A special danger to societies stems from the primordial, significance-lending appeal of violence. </p>
<p>Among animals, dominance is established through <a href="https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/idOVDU2NS9R">“trial by combat,” to use Rudy Giuliani’s</a> recent turn of phrase at the rally before the Capitol insurrection. And as President Theodore Roosevelt famously observed, <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/roosevelt/foreign-affairs">walking with a “big stick”</a> makes other nations pay attention and respect. </p>
<p>Most narratives adopted by violent extremists identify a real or imagined enemy at the gates, and fighting such enemies is depicted as worthy and honorable: For Trump acolytes, the enemy is the “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-02/the-deep-state-is-fighting-back">deep state</a>.” For much of the far right, the enemy is, variously, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36130006">immigrants, refugees</a>, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/usa/race-america/far-right-us-facebook-groups-pivot-attacks-black-lives-matter">people of color</a>, <a href="https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Antisemitism%20as%20an%20Underlying%20Precursor%20to%20Violent%20Extremism%20in%20American%20Far-Right%20and%20Islamist%20Contexts%20Pdf.pdf">Jews</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/study-shows-rise-of-hate-crimes-violence-against-asian-americans-in-nyc-during-covid/2883215/">Asians</a>, or even <a href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1860871_1860876_1861029,00.html">reptilians who plot to dominate the world</a>. </p>
<p>Evangelicals view Trump’s alleged battle <a href="https://theconversation.com/demons-of-the-deep-state-how-evangelicals-and-conspiracy-theories-combine-in-trumps-america-144898">against the “deep state” as divinely inspired</a>. And a QAnon message from Jan. 13, 2018, stated: “You were chosen for a reason. You are being provided the highest level of intel to ever be dropped publicly in the history of the world. <a href="https://joyinliberty.com/q/category/qanon-quotes/">Use it – protect and comfort those around you</a>.” These views sow division among segments of society, inviting fissures and polarization.</p>
<p>The quest for significance and respect is a universal and immutable aspect of human nature. It has the potential to inspire great works but also tear society asunder. The formidable challenge these days is to harness the energies sparked by this fundamental motive and channel them for the betterment of humanity.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156027/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arie Kruglanski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The quest for significance and respect is a universal part of human nature. It has the potential to inspire great works – but lately, it has been much in evidence tearing society apart.Arie Kruglanski, Professor of Psychology, University of MarylandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1434932020-11-02T21:49:28Z2020-11-02T21:49:28ZShakespeare’s ‘Timon of Athens,’ penned in plague-time, shows money corrupts but can also heal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357783/original/file-20200913-24-1havtx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C350%2C5649%2C3071&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shakespeare did an excellent job of depicting the real nature of money, Karl Marx believed. A £2 coin issued in 2016 to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his <em><a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/power.htm">Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844</a></em>,
Karl Marx used Shakespeare’s work to examine money and its impact. The text was <em>Timon of Athens</em>, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.13128/JEMS-2279-7149-18090">tragedy written by Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton</a>. </p>
<p>“Shakespeare,” Marx said, “excellently depicts the real nature of money.” Marx thought <em>Timon of Athens</em> shows perfectly how money both funds the miraculous fulfilment of all our wishes — and also robs us of friendship, love and our very humanity.</p>
<p>As philosopher <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137324580_7">Margherita Pascucci</a> as well as the editors of the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/timon-of-athens-9781903436974/">Arden Shakespeare third edition of <em>Timon of Athens</em></a> argue, Marx gets a great deal right about money in the play. I think that the play’s case against money is even more sinister than Marx does, but also, that the play shows how money can be used for the public good.</p>
<h2>Spreading the wealth</h2>
<p>Super-rich Timon loves to spread his wealth around. His supposed friends give <em>him</em> gifts in expectation of returns on investment. <a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/timon/timon.2.1.html">“If I want gold,” says one senator, “steal but a beggar’s dog / And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold.”</a></p>
<p>Timon thinks money is simply the thing he and his “friends” use to celebrate their friendship. <a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/timon/timon.1.2.html">“O,” Timon tells his greedy guests, “what a precious comfort ‘tis to have so many like brothers commanding one another’s fortunes.”</a></p>
<p>But Marx, like Shakespeare and unlike Timon, finds that money makes us powerful and lovable precisely <a href="http://prometheusbooks.com/books/9780879754464">by alienating us from ourselves</a>. Marx builds his case against money on Timon’s diatribe against gold, which comes pouring out of him when all his “brothers” deny him money when he is most in need. </p>
<p>For Timon, gold is revealed as a “<a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/timon/timon.4.3.html">visible god</a>” with the power to make the ugly beautiful, the evil good and able to conjure what passes for love between people.
Timon comes to understand how money replaces human relations with monetary ones. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1027246635888398341"}"></div></p>
<h2>Written in plague-time</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/timon-of-athens/past-productions/simon-godwin-2018-production/the-plot">1605-6, when the play was likely written</a>, Middleton was coming off a string of brilliant satires about money-grubbing and seeking status. Shakespeare had, over the previous few years, written his great tragedies, including <em>Othello</em>, <em>King Lear</em> and <em>Macbeth</em>. In these early years of the reign of King James, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09770-8_5">the royal court was a hotbed of self-display by courtiers on the make and self-promoting gift-giving</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://archives.history.ac.uk/cmh/epitwig.html">plague had also swept through England in 1603</a>, when about 25 per cent <a href="https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/blogs/sovereign-and-sick-city-1603/">of the population of London died</a>. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/24/shakespeares-great-escape-plague-1606--james-shapiro">Plague struck again in 1606</a>, which is why <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/timon-of-athens/about-the-play/dates-and-sources">the play seems never to have been performed in Shakespeare’s lifetime</a>. </p>
<p>The London playhouses were ordered closed. The churches, however, stayed open; congregants could hear about how <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A19678.0001.001">plague came from God as a punishment for their sins</a>.</p>
<h2>Money as disease</h2>
<p>Against this background of courtly profligacy and plague, it should come as no surprise that money in <em>Timon of Athens</em> isn’t merely an instrument of both empowerment and alienation. Money is a disease whose serpent-like winding from person to person swells into a pandemic large enough to annihilate humankind.</p>
<p>When Timon storms out of Athens, he curses the city: </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/timon/timon.4.1.html">“Breath, infect breath</a></p>
<p>at their society, as their friendship, may</p>
<p>Be merely poison!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Alone in the woods, he digs for roots, but finds instead a fortune in gold. He gives gold to the soldier Alcibiades to bankroll an attack on Athens. Alcibiades had been banished from the city by the arrogant, unjust senators. Timon encourages him to slaughter everyone, down to the babies with “dimpled smiles”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/timon/timon.4.3.html">Put up thy gold: go on — here’s gold — go on;</a>.</p>
<p>Be as a planetary plague, when Jove</p>
<p>Will o'er some high-viced city hang his poison</p>
<p>In the sick air …”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Sharing money</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360063/original/file-20200925-14-l3ewrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man turns away from two women and a solidier." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360063/original/file-20200925-14-l3ewrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360063/original/file-20200925-14-l3ewrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360063/original/file-20200925-14-l3ewrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360063/original/file-20200925-14-l3ewrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360063/original/file-20200925-14-l3ewrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360063/original/file-20200925-14-l3ewrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360063/original/file-20200925-14-l3ewrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Timon, on the left, giving gold to Phrynia and Timandra; scene from ‘Timon of Athens’ (Act 4, Scene 3). Cropped detail from mounted etching and engraving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">(1299363001/The Trustees of the British Museum)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We moderns are informed by scientists, but we would do well to think with these Renaissance playwrights about about how the desire for money, and the power and pre-eminence money can buy, has led us to exploit the natural world and create gross global disparities in wealth.</p>
<p>Might money itself might have helpful or healing properties in the face of both the inequities that have become apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic and the planetary <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-change-wont-stop-for-the-coronavirus-pandemic">climate crisis</a>? </p>
<p>The play suggests two ways money can save us. Near the play’s end, Timon’s steward Flavius and his former servants gather to say farewell. Flavius makes the other men take a share of the money he has saved through his employment. <a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/timon/timon.4.2.html">“Nay, put out all your hands,” he says, “not one word more.”</a> </p>
<p>What we see is a group of people whose hunger and desire for shelter are addressed by the simple sharing of money — as Marx wrote (<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-each-according-to-ability-to-each-according-to-need-tracing-the-biblical-roots-of-socialisms-enduring-slogan-138365">or at least popularized</a>), <a href="http://doi.org/10.13169/jglobfaul.4.2.0095">to each according to his needs</a>. </p>
<p>Surely today, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-throne-speech-must-blaze-a-bold-new-path-including-imposing-a-wealth-tax-145747">less hoarding of wealth and fairer systemic distribution of resources</a> could help mitigate some of the worst impacts of the virus on communities that have been hardest hit. Similarly so when we look at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/un-ruling-could-be-a-game-changer-for-climate-refugees-and-climate-action-130532">disproportionate impacts of climate change on the Global South</a>.</p>
<h2>Money upholding law</h2>
<p>The play also shows us how money might help to uphold the law and undo corruption. </p>
<p>With Timon’s gold, Alcibiades is able to bring an army to the gates of Athens. Instead of putting the city to the sword, he uses the threat of the sword to enforce the good laws of Athens and to purge the corruption of the Athenian senators, who <a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/timon/timon.5.4.html">“with all licentious measure,” make their “wills / The scope of justice.”</a> Alcibiades honours “the stream / Of regular justice … and public laws.”</p>
<p>We can put aside the spectre of righteous armies at the gates of our cities. Violence cannot create a just world. But money could serve to give the law teeth. Money could fund a lawful path toward a just world. </p>
<p>Imagine how we might scale up from Alcibiades’ honouring of “the stream of regular justice.” Money could fund a transnational movement able to transform into law in every nation a document like the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris climate agreement</a>, a pact which even the <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/11/5/20947289/paris-climate-agreement-2020s-breakdown-trump">signatory governments now can simply nod at and ignore</a>.</p>
<p>Groups championing a <a href="https://ecojustice.ca/">better Earth</a> show us some ways it can be done. To make the Paris agreement into law across all nations would be to turn the world and the “visible god” of money toward what really matters and to give humankind a fighting chance of survival. </p>
<p>As Shakespeare understood, our fate depends on our ability to foster the humility and fellow feeling that will dethrone our god of money and transform it into a thing we use to advance our good and the good of others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Yachnin has received funding from SSHRC, the CFI, and FQRSC. </span></em></p>Shakespeare understood that our fate depends on fostering the humility and empathy that dethrones money and transforms it into something we use to advance the common good.Paul Yachnin, Tomlinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/702302016-12-14T13:00:52Z2016-12-14T13:00:52ZWas there an evolutionary purpose to bullying?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149832/original/image-20161213-1594-1qeza4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/472811992?src=nXotvmZLwHWbYZDbHt5EWw-1-87&id=472811992&size=medium_jpg">Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I once watched a dominant baboon walk purposefully toward several members of the troop to bully them with snarls, slaps and bites. Baboons are well-known bullies. They use actual and threatened violence to climb the social ladder and then to cement their status as the most dominant animal. Male baboons bully (biologists prefer “harass”) for dominance because they want first dibs on the tastiest foods and opportunities for mating. Charles Darwin explained in <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2009">Origin of Species</a> that these are the drivers of evolution: food and sex.</p>
<p>The baboon I was watching was actually the largest of the adult females. The staff at the Detroit Zoo had removed all the adult males because they fought so fiercely with each other, and so mercilessly harassed the females, that the zoo hospital was overworked with sewing-up deep cuts and dealing with lost fingers. But soon after the males were removed, this particular female grew physically larger and started bullying the others. She became more muscular and even developed a false scrotum – she looked like a big male and acted like one. She was probably making more of the “male” hormone, testosterone, and more growth hormones. </p>
<p>This machoness in hormones, body and behaviour is also seen in other social-living species where female competition for breeding is intense, such as <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/subjects/meerkat">meerkats</a>, some <a href="http://lemur.duke.edu/discover/meet-the-lemurs/ring-tailed-lemur/">lemurs</a> and especially hyenas where the females lead and the males are submissive.
But what was this female baboon after? Zoo food is more or less the same every day and there were no males to mate with. A colleague watching these baboons for months told me that they bully each other “because they can”. My colleague meant that when given the opportunity both males and females will be bullies. Harassing others is evolutionarily ingrained; it is just the way they are. </p>
<h2>But what about humans?</h2>
<p>Can the same be said for people? We are a status-driven species. Like baboons, lemurs and hyenas, we live in social groups and we form power hierarchies. The “top dogs” in all human societies often get what they want, including food and mates. However, for 99% of our evolutionary history, all humans lived by foraging, that is hunting and gathering wild foods. Everybody had to work together to survive. </p>
<p>In the few forager societies of Africa that still exist today, people live in small, mobile groups. Possessions are few and easily carried from camp to camp. The children play games of cooperation and not the competitive games typical of children in our own society. Very little physical bullying exists, but people use gossip to socially regulate behaviour. The society strives for equality and cooperation and hunted foods are usually shared with all members of the group. Some men, however, are more successful hunters. Research has found that these men have greater upper-body strength and <a href="http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(14)00081-6/abstract">deeper voices</a> – both signs of greater testosterone production. These same men are also more desirable to women and father more babies than other men. So, Darwinian evolution is at work here, selecting for machismo, and has probably been at work throughout human history. </p>
<p>In the past, a few forager societies with abundant local resources lived in permanent villages. One example are the native people of the Pacific coast of Canada. Some families in the villages <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Home_Before_the_Raven_Caws.html?id=z4E1AYV-epoC&redir_esc=y">controlled more resources</a> and had higher social status than other families. The social hierarchies were depicted on totem poles. The families high on the totem pole enjoyed the most power, had the most materials goods, and produced the most children. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149833/original/image-20161213-1620-d6zz1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149833/original/image-20161213-1620-d6zz1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149833/original/image-20161213-1620-d6zz1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149833/original/image-20161213-1620-d6zz1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149833/original/image-20161213-1620-d6zz1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149833/original/image-20161213-1620-d6zz1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149833/original/image-20161213-1620-d6zz1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baboons are well known bullies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/pic-397472089/stock-photo-olive-baboon-or-anubis-baboon-papio-anubis-in-mole-national-park-ghana.html?src=6iMyfp--hIp_l4SuaOSCHQ-1-69">feathercollector/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the beginnings of farming about 10,000 years ago came ever greater social stratification, running right up to the ancient and modern kingdoms and today’s societies where a few extremely wealthy families dominate business, political and social life and bully the less fortunate into lives on the dole and zero-hour work contracts.</p>
<p>Evolutionary biology is at work today. In the US, census data show that rich women are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/25/women-wealth-childcare-family-babies-study">more fertile</a> than poor women. The rich are also taller than the poor in most societies, and have been for <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471354481.html">centuries</a>. Once this was thought to be due to better food and healthcare, but new research has <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v533/n7604/full/nature17986.html">found</a> that bullying is also at work – at least in the animal kingdom. Juvenile meerkats fighting to be the breeding adult – just one pair usually breed – grow competitively and bully their younger siblings into remaining small. The competitors must eat more to sustain their growth, but their faster growth begins before they start eating more. They seem to be pumping out more hormones for both faster growth and bullying. </p>
<p>Studies of human growth have long been available but never interpreted in terms of bullying and competitive growth. One British study is especially relevant, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (<a href="http://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/5171/">ALSPAC</a>). The participants are mostly white native British families. Researchers sifted through 12,000 records for an association between growth in height and sibling number, birth order and birth spacing. They reported that with each additional older sibling the study child was up to 1.3 inches shorter by age ten. </p>
<p>Neither the economic conditions of the family nor the sex of the older sibling influenced the findings. The conventional explanation is that, with more mouths to feed, each additional, younger sibling receives a smaller share of parents’ resources. But, the ALSPAC study families are relatively wealthy, the children are well-fed, and in the society studied has universal healthcare and education, with extra benefits to those in need. Bullying may be a better explanation for the height deficit of younger siblings. With or without intentional malice, older siblings are known to inflict physical and emotional stress on <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23159327">younger brothers and sisters</a> and may slow the flow of their growth hormones. In fact, another study of ALSPAC <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16670160">children</a> showed strong positive associations between the most important growth hormone, called IGF-1, and height for both boys and girls. </p>
<p>There does appear to be an evolutionary purpose to bullying; it is found in many animal societies and has deep evolutionary roots. People bully each other, not just to get ahead for food and sex but also, like the baboons, because they can. On the other hand, the hunter-gatherer studies show that we can be highly cooperative and reduce the need for bullying to a minimum. So let’s look for those evolutionary mechanisms favouring cooperation and reward people who use them. Humans have evolved to be smart enough to take personal and collective decisions about how we want to behave. We can overcome bullying and we could get used to it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70230/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Bogin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Understanding how bullying evolved may help us deal with it in modern society.Barry Bogin, Professor, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/627892016-08-09T11:58:30Z2016-08-09T11:58:30ZBreathing new life into the funeral business<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132804/original/image-20160802-9761-n30hxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Death of the salesmen.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A funeral, the ceremonial disposal of a body, has two key elements – the body and the ceremony. And each of these has its own associated merchants selling goods or services in the important business of dealing with death.</p>
<p>“Hardware merchants” – funeral directors, cemeteries and crematoria – provide goods such as coffins, hearses, graves and cremators. These provide for the body’s storage, viewing, transport and ultimate disposal through burial or fire. “Software merchants” on the other hand provide a service – the ceremony – and comprise ministers and priests of various religions, and a fast increasing number of celebrants representing no faith community.</p>
<p>When a death occurs, the grieving family usually deal initially with a hardware merchant, the funeral director. They then subcontract out the body’s burial or cremation to other hardware merchants, and the ceremony to a software merchant. </p>
<p>This structure, with the funeral director as the family’s first contact, was developed in Britain in the 19th century when it was eminently fit for purpose. The millions of people moving from the countryside to industrial towns needed to find their place in society. They used <a href="http://jsah.ucpress.edu/content/43/1/91.1">housing</a> and <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/death-heaven-and-the-victorians/oclc/446525">funerals</a> to demonstrate their social and economic respectability. </p>
<p>The religious service at the time required little thought. Anglicans had the Anglican rite, Methodists the Methodist service, Catholics the Catholic mass, and within each, there was little variation. Instead, the major choices concerned hardware. As the funeral was a display of economic status, the key questions revolved around things like the appearance of the coffin and the number of horses. The undertaker, who advised on these elements and provided much of them himself, was therefore the appropriate person to make the arrangements.</p>
<p>Today, however, this kind of status insecurity and adherence to religion, are in marked decline. Many families know where they fit socially and do not need funerals to demonstrate this. And <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9781137506559">far fewer people are committed to any religion</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, many funerals are now designed to display not the family’s respectability but the deceased’s individuality. They focus not on looking forward to the next life, but on looking back to celebrate the unique life that was lived. For such occasions then, the main choices concern not hardware but software. These families don’t care about fancy coffins and black cars. They care about the ceremony being meaningful and personal.</p>
<p>Yet for most of them, the first task when organising a funeral is still to approach a funeral director, who advises not only on hardware but also on software - on which they may have little expertise. Choices on the service are often made before the family even gets to meet the minister or celebrant.</p>
<p>And of the <a href="http://www.royallondon.com/about/media/news/2015/october/uk-funeral-costs-rise-as-rapidly-as-house-prices-/">average £3,700 cost</a> of a “basic funeral”, only about £200 goes to this celebrant, together with perhaps £400 for hire of the ceremony venue and printing the ceremony programme. Where does the rest go? Predominantly on hardware and its overheads, and care of the body. </p>
<p>So organisationally and economically, the British funeral retains its Victorian material-based structure, even though increasing numbers today value ceremony more.</p>
<h2>It’s your funeral</h2>
<p>Since the 1990s, however, the funeral industry has witnessed significant new products and services. <a href="http://www.naturaldeath.org.uk/index.php?page=natural-burial-grounds">Natural burial grounds</a>, companies providing <a href="http://www.colourfulcoffins.com/">personalised coffins</a> and <a href="https://funeralcelebrants.org.uk/">freelance celebrants</a> have all succeeded as businesses. But that is mainly because these entrepreneurs have accepted their role as subcontractors to the funeral director, who gains by having more services to offer the family.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133512/original/image-20160809-9267-1xesm67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Life and death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-391359181/stock-photo-cemetery.html?src=csl_recent_image-1">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The innovations which have struggled are those that challenge the funeral director’s position as contractor-in-chief. More recently, however, some <a href="http://www.arkafunerals.co.uk/">new start-up funeral businesses</a> discuss both ceremony and hardware with their clients from the beginning, aiming to offer a seamless service. Likewise, some established funeral firms now provide their own in-house celebrant, in order to provide a similar all-in-one service.</p>
<p>A celebrant could also arrange for the body to be transferred from the place of death direct to the crematorium. This allows a ceremony in the presence of the coffin, but without the expense of hearses and cars or an intermediate place to store the body. </p>
<p>Another innovation gaining popularity is direct cremation, in which the body is cremated without any ceremony and with no mourners attending. David Bowie’s direct cremation cost a <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/david-bowie-been-secretly-cremated-7174860">reported US$700</a> and in the UK, costs can fall to <a href="http://www.goodfuneralguide.co.uk/direct-disposal/">around £1,000</a>. With
body disposal separated from ceremony in this way, some families hold a separate memorial service weeks or months later. </p>
<p>Yet, still, for many families the traditional cortege and associated hardware continue to signify respect for the deceased.</p>
<p>This increasingly complex market adds up to a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13576275.2016.1205574">big test</a> for the funeral industry as it evolves to accommodate those wanting a fully personal ceremony and those unable to afford escalating funeral prices. </p>
<p>In time, it could mean the death of the industry’s Victorian structure. If so, what new structure might rise from the ashes is anyone’s guess.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Walter has received funding from the National Association of Funeral Directors and Civil Ceremonies Limited. </span></em></p>A failure to innovate could mean the death of the traditional industry.Tony Walter, Professor of Death Studies, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/517822015-12-04T20:37:20Z2015-12-04T20:37:20ZIf you give a man a gun: the evolutionary psychology of mass shootings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104468/original/image-20151204-16482-7xlrwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A longing for power and social status mixed with hormones and fear can have deadly consequences. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-286760048/stock-photo-silhouette-rear-of-man-standing-hand-hold-holding-gun-revolvers-on-sunrise-in-the-city-background.html?src=CaQc25v7GVYC2kLrrNHhRw-1-7">'Man' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178909000457">Men commit</a> over 85% of all homicides, 91% of all same-sex homicides and 97% of all same-sex homicides in which the victim and killer aren’t related to each other. </p>
<p>These startling statistics are driven home with each new mass shooting (though the most recent tragedy in San Bernardino, California is a bit unusual in that a married couple were the shooters). </p>
<p>In any event, politicians and the media are trotting out the usual suspects to explain the tragedy, whether it’s the lack of attention paid to mental illness or the easy availability of guns. </p>
<p>But these explanations dance around the big questions: why is there always a man behind these shootings? And why is it almost always a <em>young</em> man? </p>
<p>Evolutionary psychology can provide some clues. </p>
<h2>Precarious manhood</h2>
<p>Psychologists Joseph Vandello and Jennifer Bosson have coined the term “<a href="http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/20/2/82">precarious manhood</a>” to describe a dilemma that only men seem to face. </p>
<p>In a nutshell, they argue that “manhood” – however an individual male’s culture might define it – is a status that must be continually earned. And one’s self-worth is tied to being perceived as a “real man.” </p>
<p>It’s precarious because it can be easily lost – especially if the man fails to measure up to the relentless challenges that life throws at him, be they tests of physical bravery, or competition with other men for respect and status.</p>
<p>When I introduce this concept to my male students, they instantly recognize what I’m talking about. But when I ask the women if there’s a female equivalent, I’m often met with confused looks. (Some do note that the inability to have a child could be a threat to womanhood.) Indeed, it quickly becomes clear in the ensuing discussion that “manhood” is more precarious than “womanhood.”</p>
<p>The roots of this male dilemma reside deep in our prehistoric past. Throughout the animal kingdom, the sex that invests the least in the reproduction of offspring (almost always males) competes among themselves for sexual access to mates. </p>
<p>Historically, powerful men <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-fJjY9frliEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA58&dq=evolutionary+psychology+of+male+violence+daly+and+wilson+1994&ots=F-xVKQLFMc&sig=AcCEF0cyDYZzxkFBweRkgfqRT9I#v=onepage&q&f=false">have always enjoyed greater sexual access to women</a> than men lower in the pecking order, and violence can often be traced to this grim struggle for status. Anthropologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Chagnon">Napoleon Chagnon</a> spent years studying the Yanomamo people of South America. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ul283U5_HrUC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=chagnon+yanamamo&ots=H8eGdTds8W&sig=kJlzjRtiG-d6Ke3Zv5LEpnLSwsQ#v=onepage&q=chagnon%20yanamamo&f=false">He discovered</a> that men who had killed other men acquired significantly more wives than men who hadn’t killed anyone. And by all indications, a man’s status in the group was often dependent upon how believable his threats of physical violence were. </p>
<p>In different cultures, the male “quest for dominance” may play out in different ways. Regardless, it is clearly a universal motivating principle among males, with the achievement of dominance satisfying and rewarding for those who attain it. As scholar Jonathan Gottschall <a href="http://evp.sagepub.com/content/13/3/1474704915598490.full">put it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To physically dominate another man is intoxicating. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And so, violence committed against the right people at the right time became a ticket to social success.</p>
<h2>Competitive drives</h2>
<p>For sound evolutionary reasons, younger men find themselves especially concerned with status and dominance. </p>
<p>In early human societies, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178909000457">competitive success or failure in early adulthood determined a man’s standing in a social group for the rest of his life</a>. It wasn’t possible to simply hit the “reset” button and join another group, so what happened during the teen years mattered a lot. </p>
<p>For this reason, high-risk competition between young males provided an opportunity for “showing off” the abilities needed to acquire resources, exhibit strength and meet any challenges to one’s status. Consequently, heroic or even recklessly daredevil behavior was rewarded with status and respect – assuming, of course, that the young man survived the ordeal.</p>
<p>Today, the widespread promotion of sport in our culture undoubtedly developed as a constructive alternative for dealing with the proclivities of young males that evolved in a very different time. In a legally sanctioned gladiatorial arena, young men are able to exhibit the same skills – throwing, clubbing, running, wrestling, tackling, hand-eye coordination – that would have made them successful fighters or hunters in the ancestral environment.</p>
<h2>Young Male Syndrome</h2>
<p>It’s no secret that most people fear violent behavior by young men more than violent behavior by older men. There’s a sound basis for this fear. </p>
<p>In fact, the tendency of young men to engage in risky, aggressive behavior prompted the Canadian psychologists Margo Wilson and Martin Daly to give it a name: <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016230958590041X">Young Male Syndrome</a>. </p>
<p>The duo studied the relationship among age, sex and homicide victimization in the United States in 1975. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3p4br9FRAUgC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=daly+and+wilson+homicide&ots=kvjALtEUbC&sig=o9RbWltQarPT78CgLSBXkMp35rg#v=onepage&q=daly%20and%20wilson%20homicide&f=false">They found</a> that the likelihood of a woman being a murder victim doesn’t change dramatically throughout the course of her life. The pattern for the males, on the other hand, is striking. At age 10, males and females have an equal probability of being murdered. But by the time men are into their 20’s, they become <em>six times</em> more likely to be murdered. </p>
<p>Consistent with Wilson and Daly’s data, 87% of the 598 homicide victims in the city of Chicago in 2003 were males, and 64% of the victims were between the ages of 17 and 30. The likelihood of being the victim of lethal violence peaks for men between the late teens and late 20’s, before steadily declining for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>Nature fuels the fires of male violence by equipping young men with the high levels of testosterone necessary to get the job done. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104492/original/image-20151204-29716-1jhbwug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104492/original/image-20151204-29716-1jhbwug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104492/original/image-20151204-29716-1jhbwug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104492/original/image-20151204-29716-1jhbwug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104492/original/image-20151204-29716-1jhbwug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104492/original/image-20151204-29716-1jhbwug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104492/original/image-20151204-29716-1jhbwug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=734&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Squaring off.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-171167054/stock-photo-fighting-chimpanzee-bonobo-pan-paniscus-democratic-republic-of-congo-africa.html?src=0kdt0q25IjGrkgf6QnqU7w-1-1">'Chimpanzees' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Studies on chimpanzees – our closest primate relative – have shown that high-ranking male chimpanzees exhibit the highest levels of aggression and the highest levels of testosterone. Furthermore, all adult male chimpanzees experience their <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347203003981">highest testosterone levels</a> when they’re in the presence of females who are ovulating. This is associated only with higher levels of aggression – not significant increases in actual sexual activity.</p>
<p>Researchers such as myself who study <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178909000457">the relationship between testosterone and aggression in humans</a> have concluded that testosterone-fueled violence is more likely to occur when males are competing with other males, or when the social status of a male is challenged in some way. The increased testosterone facilitates whatever competitive behaviors are needed to meet the challenge, which could mean physical violence. </p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1991.tb02379.x/pdf">Many studies have shown</a> that testosterone levels in males rise and fall according to whether the individual wins or loses in competitive sports, like tennis and wrestling – even chess. </p>
<p>Sports fans experience the same spike watching sports, which helps explain the violence and destructive rioting that can take place after big games (win or lose). </p>
<h2>Adding guns to the mix</h2>
<p>So how do guns figure into this violent equation? </p>
<p>In 2006 I coauthored <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/6919042_Guns_Testosterone_and_Aggression_An_Experimental_Test_of_a_Mediational_Hypothesis">a laboratory study</a> on men’s responses to guns in the journal <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com">Psychological Science</a> with my colleague Tim Kasser and one of our students. We demonstrated that males who interacted with a handgun showed a greater increase in testosterone levels and more aggressive behavior than males who interacted with the board game Mouse Trap. </p>
<p>In the study, each participant dismantled either a gun or the mousetrap, handled its components and then wrote instructions for how to assemble the objects. Then we gave them the opportunity to put hot sauce into water that was going to be consumed by another person. The participants who handled the gun put in significantly more hot sauce – and were also more likely to express disappointment after learning that no one was going to actually drink the concoction. </p>
<p>Thus, cues tied to threats often won’t result in aggressive responses unless testosterone is involved. Elliot Rodger, the disturbed college student whose violent 2014 rampage through Santa Barbara, California, was foretold in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu6NKHtLzks">chilling YouTube video</a>, clearly experienced a testosterone surge upon purchasing his first handgun. </p>
<p>“After I picked up the handgun,” he explained, “I brought it back to my room and felt a new sense of power. Who’s the alpha male now, bitches?”</p>
<h2>Mass shooter = low-dominant loser?</h2>
<p>Young male violence is most likely to be initiated by young men who don’t command respect from others. They’ll often feel like slighted outcasts, deprived of what they want or feel they deserve. </p>
<p>British clinical psychologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gilbert_%28psychologist%29">Paul Gilbert</a> has developed something he calls the <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.413.8535&rep=rep1&type=pdf">Social Attention Holding Theory</a>. According to Gilbert, we compete with each other to have other people pay attention to us; when other people take notice, we build status. The increased status that comes from having others attend to us leads to all kinds of positive emotions. But persistently being ignored by others produces much darker emotions – especially envy and anger.</p>
<p>It’s no mystery why the media will often describe mass shooters and terrorists as misfits or loners. In many cases, they are. </p>
<p>Nicolas Henin was a Frenchman who was held hostage by ISIS for ten months. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/16/isis-bombs-hostage-syria-islamic-state-paris-attacks?CMP=share_btn_fb">Here’s how he described</a> his young, murderous, Jihadi captors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They present themselves to the public as superheroes, but away from the camera are a bit pathetic in many ways: street kids drunk on ideology and power. In France we have a saying – stupid and evil. I found them more stupid than evil. That is not to understate the murderous potential of stupidity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Apparently, a lack of attention from others results in a lack of status, resulting in a lack of access to women. Combined with a young man’s testosterone, it creates a toxic, combustible mix. </p>
<p>There may not be much we can do to change the structure of the young male mind that evolved over the course of millions of years. However, ignoring or denying its existence doesn’t do us any favors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank T. McAndrew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why is there always a man behind the trigger? And why is it almost always a young man?Frank T. McAndrew, Cornelia H Dudley Professor of Psychology, Knox CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/439872015-07-22T10:25:54Z2015-07-22T10:25:54ZFrom kitsch to Park Avenue: the cultural history of the plastic pink flamingo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89235/original/image-20150721-24266-cl7ae4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Don Featherstone, the creator of the iconic lawn ornament, died in June.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/breatheindigital/4844566639">Ryan Hyde/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1957, a 21-year-old art school graduate named Don Featherstone created his second major design for the Massachusetts-based lawn and garden decoration manufacturer Union Products: a three-dimensional plastic pink flamingo propped up by two thin, metal legs that could be plunged into soft dirt. </p>
<p>Featherstone’s duck and flamingo ornaments sold in pairs for US$2.76, and were advertised as “Plastics for the Lawn.” They became simultaneously popular and derided in the late 1950s and remain a recognizable species of American material culture. </p>
<p>Featherstone died this past June, but over five decades after he submitted his design, the plastic pink flamingo continues to grace American lawns and homes. While many are quick to label the plastic ornament as the epitome of kitsch, the flamingo has actually taken a rather tumultuous flight through an ever-changing landscape of taste and class. </p>
<h2>A product of its time</h2>
<p>All three of the ornament’s basic elements – plastic material, pink color and the flamingo design – have a particular relevance to the late 1950s. </p>
<p>The year 1957 was the year of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock and the ‘57 Chevy, of popular plastic toys like Wham-O’s hula hoop and the Frisbee – all icons of midcentury nostalgia. The late 1950s also witnessed the solidification of a commodity-driven suburban way of life, along with a host of new anxieties over class and status.</p>
<p>In the postwar era, cheap, sturdy and versatile plastics were becoming an increasingly popular material for mass-produced commercial products, from Tupperware to <a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/88/b9/18/88b918f0bc425257774e8baf0710acaf.jpg">Model 500 rotary phones</a>. </p>
<p>Design historian Jeffrey Meikle <a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-Plastic-A-Cultural-History/dp/0813522358">discusses</a> how this era was referred to as “a new Rococo marked by extravagance, excess, and vulgarity.” Many design and cultural critics pilloried plastic for its ability to easily depart from established design principles, though consumers and manufacturers kept the craze going. </p>
<p>The fad was clearly waning by the 1960s. In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSxihhBzCjk">famous scene</a> from The Graduate, actor Dustin Hoffman expresses disillusionment in the “great future in plastics.”</p>
<p>And then there’s the color pink. Art historian Karal Ann Marling <a href="http://www.amazon.com/As-Seen-TV-Culture-Everyday/dp/0674048830">explains</a> that in the 1950s, pink was perceived as “young, daring – and omnisexual.” She points out that popular celebrities like Mamie Eisenhower, Jayne Mansfield and Elvis Presley loved to incorporate pink in their wardrobes, their bedroom decor and – in the case of Elvis – their cars.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89052/original/image-20150720-12564-yhvr4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89052/original/image-20150720-12564-yhvr4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89052/original/image-20150720-12564-yhvr4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89052/original/image-20150720-12564-yhvr4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89052/original/image-20150720-12564-yhvr4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89052/original/image-20150720-12564-yhvr4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89052/original/image-20150720-12564-yhvr4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elvis Presley’s famous pink Cadillac is on display in Graceland’s Auto Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/string_bass_dave/16646459132/in/photolist-rmZsm5-cMJabq-cMJmv9-5XBmH1-5Xx7hX-5Xx7zp-cMJbhY-cMJn4b-cMJkm3-cMJ69q-kWDd1-cMHWfJ-cMJ3VG-cMHXi3-cMJgiJ-cMJbSo-4tvzhq-cMHYus-cMJ9mw-cMJ1YL-cMHZ7S-cMJ7mf-vLVVYW-dPnu8K-7u6Mod-N54Xm-cMJ2CL-34nBMx-N54Xq-cMJduL-cMJf8d-cMJ81o-cMJe3C-cMJiLh-cMJeA7-HTP37-5oRpLy-cNsqcJ-cMJ1hy-7MdjuN-4L2Jvq-8E9kXt-68ZTHy-8E1qkf-mHQhx-xZi2w-8E1q8j-teZmk-2EKPVo-dPt88o">David Brossard/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Featherstone’s design wasn’t the first time flamingos swooped into American culture, either. In fact, Americans had long cherished the exotic bird, native to the Caribbean and parts of South America, and this love affair came to a head in 1957 with an explosion in popularity of Caribbean culture. </p>
<p>Caribbean-American pop star Harry Belafonte’s album Calypso, which contained the hit single <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMigXnXMhQ4">Banana Boat Song (Day-O)</a>, dominated the Billboard charts in 1956. And as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=BVQEAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1">1957 LIFE Magazine cover story</a> attests, Americans were flocking to Caribbean resorts in record numbers.</p>
<p>Jennifer Price wrote the most comprehensive essay on the plastic pink flamingo in her book Flight Maps. She <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Maps-Adventures-Nature-America/dp/0465024866">details</a> how 19th-century European and American settlers hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida. </p>
<p>But as the state drew wealthy vacationers in the 1910s and 1920s, resort owners imported the pink birds to populate their grounds. They even named Miami Beach’s first luxury hotel “The Flamingo.” Soon, Florida and these exotic-looking birds became synonymous with wealth and leisure. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89220/original/image-20150721-24286-t007g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89220/original/image-20150721-24286-t007g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89220/original/image-20150721-24286-t007g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89220/original/image-20150721-24286-t007g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89220/original/image-20150721-24286-t007g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89220/original/image-20150721-24286-t007g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89220/original/image-20150721-24286-t007g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Florida postcard from the 1940s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/8006283904">Boston Public Library/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the century progressed, the development of interstate highways and a rise in disposable income made Florida a practical destination for middle-class and working-class families. Vacation spots made accessible by the Interstate Highway System cashed in on the style and flair of the Caribbean fad. The flamingo was now associated with a region that was both exotic <em>and</em> affordable.</p>
<h2>Out in the wild</h2>
<p>Despite the plastic pink flamingo’s resonance with so many things 1957, the ornament was almost instantly ridiculed as kitsch, which was a particularly damning designation given its habitat: the American lawn. </p>
<p>As one of the few outward social spaces in the privacy-obsessed architecture of suburbia, lawns were (<a href="http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/kaufmana/downloads/Kaufman%20Lawn.pdf">and still are</a>) subject to extreme social pressure. They were perceived as both a symbol of the American dream and a productive way to spend one’s newfound leisure time. </p>
<p>However, “Keeping up with the Joneses” was less about outspending your neighbor than it was about conformity and maintaining appearances. The preferred look of middle class lawns was well-manicured and free of ornament, with flowers abutting the house. </p>
<p>To homeowners’ associations, the plastic pink flamingo’s bright color and synthetic material was an affront to the middle-class yearning for sophistication (though a piece of pink plastic is no less “natural” than a lawn maintained by DDT and Miracle-Gro).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89237/original/image-20150721-24261-1l2xzdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89237/original/image-20150721-24261-1l2xzdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89237/original/image-20150721-24261-1l2xzdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89237/original/image-20150721-24261-1l2xzdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89237/original/image-20150721-24261-1l2xzdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89237/original/image-20150721-24261-1l2xzdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89237/original/image-20150721-24261-1l2xzdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Get off my lawn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&searchterm=plastic%20flamingo&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=111072848">'Pug' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A cultural migration</h2>
<p>On the other hand – as Jennifer Price points out – working-class consumers tended to express themselves differently, favoring loud, playful and decorative schemes for their homes and lawn. </p>
<p>Flamingos sprouting from small lawns in Catholic neighborhoods seemed less out of place among concrete Virgin Mary statues and tiny St Francis fountains. </p>
<p>In the 1950s, publications like LIFE propagated a narrowly defined definition of middle class style and taste. So the display of the plastic pink flamingo in the 1950s and 1960s was perhaps not mere unsophisticated kitsch, but rather an overt rejection of the “middle-brow striving for the high-brow” lawn aesthetic. </p>
<p>While cultural critics like Gillo Dorfles have <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kitsch-The-World-Bad-Taste/dp/0876631065">maintained</a> that lawn decorations like garden gnomes and sculptured animals were an “archetypal image conjured up by the word ‘kitsch,’” a younger generation saw the plastic pink flamingo as a rebellion against the “stay normal” pressures of postwar suburbia. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89219/original/image-20150721-24286-6fc3nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89219/original/image-20150721-24286-6fc3nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89219/original/image-20150721-24286-6fc3nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89219/original/image-20150721-24286-6fc3nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89219/original/image-20150721-24286-6fc3nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89219/original/image-20150721-24286-6fc3nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89219/original/image-20150721-24286-6fc3nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Waters’ 1972 film Pink Flamingos: ‘an American trash comedy classic.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/52667842@N04/9095335535/in/photolist-dD8epj-oLk6dr-8JBoc3-jWMt7F-66M7W5-oRTuAn-7cYJG9-pWy4GE-6KxzrG-7cYEhU-eRHYnV-auX9CB-ak8GTG-58yZf2-yvd6G-7k83jY-4VdCbh-7XNuCa">00anders/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their camp appropriation of the plastic pink flamingos crossed the boundaries of good and bad taste, making <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069089/">Pink Flamingos</a> a fitting title for John Waters’ 1972 transgressive film about two contenders for the title “filthiest person alive.” </p>
<p>Eventually, this transgressive power began to also wane, and the product faced possible extinction in the early 2000s due to the rising cost of oil. </p>
<p>Luckily the flock has survived (you can still purchase a pair for around $20 on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Union-Products-62360-Featherstone-Flamingos/dp/B00XZ6XHDS?">Amazon</a>). Today plastic pink flamingos have even been spotted gracing planters on a brownstone off Park Avenue in Manhattan, illustrating just how far the bird has migrated among American classes and tastes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43987/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annie Dell'Aria does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Through the years, the iconic lawn dweller has migrated across a range of tastes.Annie Dell'Aria, PhD candidate in Art History, City University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/397632015-05-15T10:12:53Z2015-05-15T10:12:53ZA scarf can mean many things – but above all, prestige<p>When International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde goes to the G8 summit in June, <a href="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/18/63/p01863ln.jpg">she may well be wearing a scarf</a> – a fashion accessory that she’s become known for, and one that’s been drawing more and more attention. In fact, the BBC recently <a href="http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20150319-the-power-symbol-for-women">identified</a> scarves as a “new power symbol” for women.</p>
<p>True, just as some men choose amusing neckties to enliven monochrome suits, many women who work in an atmosphere that requires conservative business apparel will wear scarves to add a fillip of color and distinction.</p>
<p>But the trend is anything but “new.” In looking at the history of scarves in the 19th and 20th centuries, it’s clear that the allure and power of scarves has always existed – and persists.</p>
<h2>A single piece of cloth</h2>
<p>The scarf is the most simple form of adornment: a single piece of cloth. For this reason, it’s one of the most versatile clothing accessories, used for centuries across a variety of cultures, for a range of purposes.</p>
<p>Many Muslim women wear headscarves for modesty, while ladies of a certain age favor scarves with a triangular fold to protect expensive or elaborate coifs.</p>
<p>A scarf can be a political statement, and can denote a wearer’s affiliation or beliefs. Early 20th-century crusaders for women’s rights used their clothing to promote their cause, wearing scarves in the movement’s colors: white, green and purple.</p>
<p>During World War II, scarves expressed nationalist sentiments. The British firm Jacqmar produced designs with propaganda-themed slogans. One featured the phrase “Shoulder to Shoulder” on a map of England emblazoned with British and American symbols. Another design mimicked a wall covered with posters urging citizens to “Lend to Defend” and “Save for Victory.”</p>
<h2>An elegant fashion</h2>
<p>But in Western culture, the scarf is most prominently known for its use as a fashion accessory, one that first gained widespread popularity in the 19th century. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81563/original/image-20150513-2494-dv4v30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81563/original/image-20150513-2494-dv4v30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1051&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81563/original/image-20150513-2494-dv4v30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1051&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81563/original/image-20150513-2494-dv4v30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1051&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81563/original/image-20150513-2494-dv4v30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81563/original/image-20150513-2494-dv4v30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81563/original/image-20150513-2494-dv4v30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fichu was a predecessor to the scarf.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Fichu_(PSF).png">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fichu is a typical 18th- and 19th-century style that can be seen as the forerunner of modern scarves. A piece of fabric worn lightly draped on the upper chest and usually knotted in front, it provided modest covering but was also an opportunity to add an especially fine textile – sometimes lace edged or embroidered – to an ensemble. </p>
<p>Lightweight, finely woven silk and cashmere shawls from India were one of the first fashionable scarf styles. Empress Joséphine – the first wife of Napoleon – had an extensive collection (thanks to her husband’s travels), and the style persisted through much of the 19th century, spawning cheaper imitations fabricated in other parts of Europe, notably France and Paisley, Scotland.</p>
<h2>Status symbols</h2>
<p>Like much of high fashion, scarves can signal one’s status, and limited edition scarves – often only made available to favored customers – can act as specific indicators for those in the know.</p>
<p>For example, fashion houses send scarves, often during the holidays, as thank-yous to loyal clients. Those produced by Parisian couturiers during the 1950s were especially chic, often designed with sketches of the <em>maison</em>; others displayed printed patterns in the whimsical, painterly style of the era.</p>
<p>And from the 1950s into the 1970s, the famed Manhattan eating and drinking establishment 21 produced a series of annual scarves and sent them to favorite “regulars.” </p>
<p>The restaurant’s owners commissioned well-known designers, and each year’s scarf design referred to some aspect of the restaurant – its famous façade, the collection of jockey statues outside or the number 21. </p>
<p>Actress Lauren Bacall, an esteemed regular, donated her 21 scarves to the Museum at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, <a href="http://exhibitions.fitnyc.edu/lauren-bacall/">where other pieces from her wardrobe were recently exhibited</a>. </p>
<h2>A canvas for experimentation</h2>
<p>As a discrete space, a scarf presents an opportunity for experimentation often not available in other realms of dress that are determined – and restricted – by the shape of the body. </p>
<p>In London in the 1940s, Lida and Zika Ascher initiated their “Artist Squares” project, enlisting an international roster of prominent artists to design large scarves, a group that included Henri Matisse, Jean Cocteau and Henry Moore. </p>
<p>The Artist Squares were sold in major department stores and also exhibited – framed, like paintings – at London’s Lefevre Gallery. </p>
<p>To celebrate her new couture salon in 1935, the designer Elsa Schiaparelli made a collage of her press clippings and had it printed as fabric for scarves and other accessories, turning black and white type into a striking motif. </p>
<p>A scarf by the American designer Vera offers another variation on lettering as ornament, presenting the titles of international newspapers, each in its distinctive typeface, on a vivid yellow background. </p>
<h2>Hermès: The crème de la crème</h2>
<p>Certain labels are particularly associated with high style in scarves. Ferragamo, Fendi and Gucci – all originally esteemed leather goods houses – now produce desirable scarves. </p>
<p>But for prestige and polish, Hermès represents the pinnacle of scarf culture. Several aspects of its business have contributed to the company’s reputation. Founded in 1837 as a supplier of equestrian supplies, Hermès began offering scarves, called <em>carrés</em>, in 1937. </p>
<p>Their focus on exclusivity has encouraged an almost fetishistic loyalty among customers, many of whom could more properly be termed “collectors.” Limiting the number of designs they offer each season has maintained Hermès’ mystique. The company’s focus on craftsmanship helps justify their reputation and high prices; Hermès takes pride in the impressive number of colors in each design, the hand-printing process and the fineness of their silk, positioning their output as artisanal creations.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/evBloca_77Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A man demonstrates the intricate screen printing process of a Hermès scarf.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While not at the level of Hermès, the American accessories company <a href="http://www.echodesign.com/shop/scarfs-wraps-us/prints-patterns-scarves/">Echo</a>, founded in 1923, also has a loyal following. The firm pinpointed the essence of the scarf with their <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=C-YCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=the+echo+of+an+interesting+woman&source=bl&ots=DxcjUu8wvi&sig=A-E3Nl9UgJCqlb22IJy-cHQNXtw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HmxSVfmbOIHRgwTYyIH4BQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false">memorable ad campaign</a> “The Echo of an Interesting Woman,” introduced in the 1970s. </p>
<p>In contemporary fashion, scarves continue to serve the same functions as those earlier fine linen fichus and paisley shawls; they denote connoisseurship and sophistication. </p>
<p>It’s no surprise, then, that sociologist and image consultant Anna Akbari makes “Put on a scarf” the first entry <a href="http://www.sociologyofstyle.com/blog/5-simple-ways-to-hack-your-image">on her current list</a> of “5 Simple Ways To Hack Your Image,” recognizing their potential for instant uplift and an infusion of individuality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy Deihl does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The most simple form of adornment – a single piece of cloth – can be a signifier of status and wealth.Nancy Deihl, Master Teacher and Director of Costume Studies, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/231002014-02-18T14:49:51Z2014-02-18T14:49:51ZAn economy based on social status will always be prone to crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41372/original/hfp7prv2-1392212100.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Status symbol or waste of money?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BastiaanImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Here is a question: how can it be that everyone has free and independent choice and yet we largely converge on exactly the same things? That’s neither original nor independent.</p>
<p>Despite economic growth giving people increased opportunities for “self-realisation” in whichever direction they choose, desires have still converged towards the same trends: extravagant sports cars, expensive watches, high-end apparel, brand labels, designer kitchens and other accessories.</p>
<p>The explanation is to be found in what happens when we as citizens, consumers or voters don’t have perfect information available. The basic idea is that when you don’t know how to solve a given problem, it can be rational to imitate others by way of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/all-those-likes-and-upvotes-are-bad-news-for-democracy-21547">social proof</a>”.</p>
<p>Take, for instance, holiday crime novels. For those of us who are unable to examine the entire market, imitating others’ choices solves the problem. We consult the bestseller list and the newspaper reviews as well as family and friends. This can be rational, because through imitation you benefit from information which others have gained through experience. </p>
<p>But it’s not a blind imitation process. Imitation is motivated by the problem that needs solving – which book to buy, or how to lead your life – and one seeks to imitate those who have had success. But which problem, except for vanity, does fashion solve, and whom should you imitate?</p>
<p>Here conspicuous consumption has assumed the role that titles and honours had in days of old. It signals acclaim, status and power. These types of signals are naturally social; their meaning is only credible when everyone knows that everyone else likewise understands the signal. It’s the same with money. We only accept the currency we expect others want to receive.</p>
<p>But when a status symbol is no longer embedded in a real value – when it <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-art-world-to-fashion-to-twitter-were-all-living-in-bubbles-21812">exists in a bubble</a> – status economics becomes a self-feeding process where an individual no longer commands any quality assurance other than the status itself. Unlike money, status isn’t spent but is simply strengthened when used. </p>
<p>Those with a reputation therefore end up having a reputation simply because they have a reputation, and celebrities become famous for being famous. Just think of the alarmingly high number of reality show stars produced lately whose only qualification is that they are like everyone else. And if they can become famous for specifically being themselves (or a media boosted version thereof), then the rest of us can as well, which is why in principle anyone can become famous for being famous. Status economics may create status bubbles.</p>
<p>Cars, clothing fashions and the rest of the “superficial” lifestyle products are perfect examples of status economics, with their value largely derived from how we think others will perceive them. This also explains why the consumer bonanza celebration of the individual paradoxically arrives in a standard package.</p>
<p>Imitation is by its very nature limited to the observable. In a status economy, where there are no other guarantees than the social status itself, successful imitation is thereby the kind of imitation everyone can see and everyone can understand – thus the standard packaging.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, honours and titles only have value if an audience recognises them. This is exactly why it’s so important for us to read in the tabloids about VIP-parties which the audience are, by definition, barred from participating in. For just as the nobility had to acknowledge back in the day, if everyone gains access to the symbols of power, inflation and then worthlessness follow.</p>
<p>While everyone converges toward these symbols of power, what these symbols actually are is constantly changing. This very feature entails a cat-and-mouse chase in the hope of being first to the latest sign of high status. Imitation therefore causes inflation in the symbols of power. Remember when having a TV was considered a status symbol?</p>
<p>The status economy just brings along further spending and sinks us ever deeper into a consumer society. And voila, that’s how it all resulted in an economic crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent F Hendricks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Here is a question: how can it be that everyone has free and independent choice and yet we largely converge on exactly the same things? That’s neither original nor independent. Despite economic growth…Vincent F Hendricks, Professor of Formal Philosophy, University of CopenhagenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.