Status Anxiety

[amber]

I'm watching this show on PBS about status anxiety. They're saying why aren't we happier the more stuff we have? And it's because we don't understand the psychology of it. In a world where we're supposed to be equal, but inequality exists all around, it causes anxiety when we don't measure up to that perceived (falsly) equality. Before America and the concept of equality, people maybe hated those in a higher station in life, but didn't feel they had to measure up to them, thus no anxiety.
So, ideally your judgement of yourself tends to be relative - say, I might compare myself to my friend and feel I don't measure up, but not a millionaire, because that is so far from my actual experience that it's pointless to compare myself to that.

Why the Americans Are Often So Restless in the Midst of Their Prosperity - someone wrote this book at the start of America - he didn't understand why although americans were much more prosperous than their European counterparts, they still weren't happy. He noticed that everyone still wanted something that someone else had, no matter what they had - because if everything is supposed to be equal (unlike the classes in europe) then the slightest upward variation from that equality is more noticed, and so more coveted. We all expect what everyone else has, and poor people compare themselves to rich, because we have the national mentality that everyone is/should be equal.
This black lady is talking about crime now, and how her son wanted stuff everyone else has, and turned to crime and robbing, which of course is rampant as we can all see.
The atmosphere of the press and public opinion relentlessly sold the idea that anyone could become what they wanted to be, and total democracy, and when they don't it leads to bitterness and the anxiety.
Anyway, interesting stuff. They're not judging it so much as analyzing it from different perspectives, which is great.
"every time we seek out something that we can't afford, we consider ourselves poor. Every time we are satisfied with what we have we are considered rich."
Now they're talking about "primitive" societies, the native americans, as studied by Russeau, and how they were happy, and why. Because the tribes were materially simple but psychologically rich. When the English came and they saw, then they wanted the English stuff. Ie, they didn't need it until they saw it - which is the whole point of advertising/capitalism. Create a "need" so people buy things.