{"id":163906,"date":"2025-09-27T20:12:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T04:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=163906"},"modified":"2025-09-27T16:16:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:16:00","slug":"the-status-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=163906","title":{"rendered":"The Status Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Pinsof writes<\/a>: We all want status, <\/span>but we can\u2019t admit it<\/a>. Why? Because <\/span>it\u2019s uncool<\/a>. Wanting status makes us look selfish, insecure, and low-status. Ew. We\u2019re not supposed to care about petty things like money or fame; we\u2019re supposed to care about noble things like integrity or authenticity or something. Admitting we\u2019re desperate for status is like admitting we\u2019re horny for a co-worker or jealous of a friend\u2019s success: it\u2019s not a good look. So <\/span>we pretend we don\u2019t care about status<\/a>, as a way of gaining status. <\/span>It\u2019s kind of confusing<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

That means <\/span>status games<\/a><\/em>\u2014i.e., the mutually-agreed-upon rules for winning and losing status\u2014are <\/span>fragile<\/em>. We can only play a status game if we lack awareness that it\u2019s a status game. As soon as we become aware of the game we\u2019re playing, we stop getting status for playing it. In fact, we <\/span>lose <\/em>status: we look selfish, insecure, and low-status. Ew. So virtue signalers cannot know they\u2019re virtue signaling, and neither can the people who award them virtue. \u201cBrave\u201d truth-tellers cannot know they\u2019re seeking praise from their political tribe, and neither can the tribe who praises them. \u201cRebellious\u201d nonconformists cannot know they\u2019re conforming to the norms of their subculture, and neither can their subculture. Status games must never be emblazoned with a neon sign that says \u201cSTATUS GAME,\u201d or else they\u2019ll disintegrate in the light like vampires….<\/p>\n

The game collapses. People stop playing, for fear of looking uncool. Instead, they start playing an anti-status game to show how cool and not-interested-in-status they are. The point of an anti-status game is to show that you care about more important things than status, like integrity or authenticity or something. Anti-status games emerge in opposition to a collapsing status game, and they often take the opposite form. If people are showing off their immaculately coiffed hair, for example, anti-status-seekers might wear their hair artfully tussled.<\/p>\n

In other words, anti-status games are just another kind of status game. We could remove the \u201canti\u201d if we wanted to, but it\u2019s useful to keep it there to get a handle on what\u2019s going on, so we can see why these games are so weird. Status games are constantly collapsing and re-emerging in antithetical forms. They give rise to anti-status games, then anti-anti-status games, and so on. Different cultures split off as status symbols twirl in fractal, quasi-cyclical patterns…<\/p>\n

So if there\u2019s a status game you dislike, expose it. Tell satirical stories about its vainglorious players. Translate the covert signals into a lingua franca. Attack the game\u2019s supposed values and reveal its hypocrisy. If you succeed, the game will collapse. That\u2019s what happened to dueling, foot binding, powdered wigs, and all the other defunct status games throughout history, and it\u2019s sure to happen to many of the status games we\u2019re currently playing, like educational credentialism and performative wokeness. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, if there’s a status game you like, shield it from criticism. Hide the fact that it has anything to do with status, and angrily defend any accusations that it\u2019s more narcissistic than it appears. This kind of angry defensiveness has been common throughout history, as people sought to protect their fragile status games from collapse. \u201cHow dare you mock dueling! It\u2019s a noble tradition of manly honor!\u201d<\/p>\n

When we defend our status games, we usually appeal to \u201csacred\u201d values, like manly honor, beauty, faith, knowledge, equality, integrity, or authenticity or something. We have to pretend these values are intrinsically important and worth upholding for their own sake, independent of any status we get for upholding them. We create sacred narratives about how none of us are vain or self-centered at all; we\u2019re just noble souls who are impartially motivated by an abstract love of truth or beauty or self-expression or whatever. If anyone questions our sacred narrative or mocks us for being uncool status-seekers, it might cause our fragile status game to collapse, and that would be terrible\u2014we\u2019d lose all our accumulated status. That\u2019s why questioning sacred values is taboo.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, when deciding which status games to attack or defend, we\u2019re biased. If we\u2019re losing a status game, we attack it: it\u2019s toxic and irrational and ruining everything. If we\u2019re winning a status game, we defend it: it\u2019s noble and pure and aimed at the betterment of humankind. That is what culture wars are all about. We say they\u2019re about clashing values, but really they\u2019re just power struggles between rival subcultures\u2014attempts to shift the rules of the reigning status game in their favor. People naturally accuse their rivals of being uncool status-seekers (e.g. \u201cyou\u2019re just virtue signaling\u201d or \u201cyou just don\u2019t want to give up your privilege\u201d), while pretending that they themselves aren\u2019t interested in status. No, they\u2019re interested in more important things, like social justice or free speech or something…<\/p>\n

So if you still haven\u2019t found the right status game to play, please: choose wisely. Consider joining my anti-bullshit, (anti-)status game, which is the only way to understand how our status games really work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Pinsof writes: We all want status, but we can\u2019t admit it. Why? Because it\u2019s uncool. Wanting status makes us look selfish, insecure, and low-status. Ew. We\u2019re not supposed to care about petty things like money or fame; we\u2019re supposed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10943],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-status"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t