just remembered this urgent line of inquiry yesterday while i was waiting at the dmv. basically, when visiting the uk a couple months ago, i was quite struck by how about 30% of the people i saw in central london all followed the exact same dress code, consisting simply of a blue dress shirt tucked into dress pants. any place will have its own subcultures, but this was outright uncanny, like seeing a video game character class irl. after continued observation i started to notice subtle differences within this homogeneous population, and began speculating about sub-classes. (keep in mind i was only in central london for about three hours, so these may not be entirely accurate—i may be over-relying on specific impressions, etc.) here they are, in reverse order of inferred rank:
3. optimized men - defined by their rigorous adherence to the classical alpha male traits: high salaries; crew cuts; inflated arms and shoulders; erect posture, w/ elbows held at maximal resting distance from torso to convey simian dominance; refusal to walk anywhere but the exact center of the sidewalk (for the same reason). what i like about these guys is their straightforwardness. unencumbered by wishy-washy hippie notions of "being yourself" they aim for standardized perfection. they want to be the stock photo in an article about "10 things every man should do by 25".
2. whiz kids - defined by their flouting of the most base dimension of alpha-maleness, that of physical dominance. less muscular and more soft/sedentary looking than the optimized men. and with puffier, more elaborate hairstyles. there tends to be a sort of smugness in their countenances that's absent in the previous group. they got here by being smart rather than tryhards. their strategy for conveying social status (to, say, women at networking events) seems to be evoking a sort of aristocratic distance from physical labor. toiling away lifting heavy things is boring when you could be making as much money as they do.
1. patricians - older than the other two groups, all 6'2"-7'0" tall, with cruel victorian facial features. angrily talking to someone on their phone while the masses instinctively scurry out of their way down below. these types bring to mind craner's words that "the lower middle classes . . . are my favorite type of bacillus"—although they distain ordinary people too much to ever consciously think about them, just as the exploitative noblemen they're descended from did.
any further observations to add?
3. optimized men - defined by their rigorous adherence to the classical alpha male traits: high salaries; crew cuts; inflated arms and shoulders; erect posture, w/ elbows held at maximal resting distance from torso to convey simian dominance; refusal to walk anywhere but the exact center of the sidewalk (for the same reason). what i like about these guys is their straightforwardness. unencumbered by wishy-washy hippie notions of "being yourself" they aim for standardized perfection. they want to be the stock photo in an article about "10 things every man should do by 25".
2. whiz kids - defined by their flouting of the most base dimension of alpha-maleness, that of physical dominance. less muscular and more soft/sedentary looking than the optimized men. and with puffier, more elaborate hairstyles. there tends to be a sort of smugness in their countenances that's absent in the previous group. they got here by being smart rather than tryhards. their strategy for conveying social status (to, say, women at networking events) seems to be evoking a sort of aristocratic distance from physical labor. toiling away lifting heavy things is boring when you could be making as much money as they do.
1. patricians - older than the other two groups, all 6'2"-7'0" tall, with cruel victorian facial features. angrily talking to someone on their phone while the masses instinctively scurry out of their way down below. these types bring to mind craner's words that "the lower middle classes . . . are my favorite type of bacillus"—although they distain ordinary people too much to ever consciously think about them, just as the exploitative noblemen they're descended from did.
any further observations to add?
