p. 26 Perhaps because people tend to imagine that human\nbeings have always lived in hierarchical societies, we rarely, if ever, stop to\nimagine what it would be like to belong to a community of near equals, free of\nthe insecurities caused by class and status divisions. We assume that the only\nway to regain the confidence and social ease which we lack would be to increase\nour own status \u2026 in tribal societies without settled agriculture, in which\npeople live in non-hierarchical communities, several studies have shown that\nblood pressure shows no tendency to rise with age\u2026 That was true even when\ncomparisons were adjusted for the effects on blood pressure of things like\ndiet, salt intake an obesity\u2026 recorded changes in blood pressure among nuns\nliving in a closed order in Italy. Though they were eating much the same diet\nas the rest of the local population, the study found the had no rise in blood\npressure as they aged during a 20-year follow-up period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
p. 27 \u201cpeople living in countries with bigger income differences\nbetween rich and poor are more prone to status anxiety. Regardless of\nindividual income levels, people in more unequal societies became more worried\nabout how they are seen and judged \u2026 particularly strong effects on people\u2019s levels\nof stress hormones. \u2026 some people feel that social life is a constant battle\nwith low self-esteem. Lacking in confidence and overcome by extreme shyness,\nthey tend to withdraw from social life and often become depressed\u2026 the other\ncommon response is almost the opposite. Many people respond \u2026 by projecting an exaggeratedly\npositive view of themselves, apparently to conceal their self-doubt. Modesty ..\ntends to be replaced by narcissism and a kind of self-enhancement or\nself-promotion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
p. 29 \u201cit is mistaken to think that the hierarchy in the\nsocieties we analyse is meritocratic, ordering people by inherent ability \u2026\nbrain imaging techniques and our growing knowledge of the malleability of the\nhuman brain, have made it clear that the most important differences in ability\nresult from an individual\u2019s position in the social hierarchy, rather than being\ndeterminants of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAspects of the cultural differences between classes seem to\nexist primarily to provide tests of status, almost for the purpose of\nidentifying those who can be devalued and excluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cwe can move towards a society which will cease to generate\nsuch intense and counterproductive feelings of insecurity and self-doubt by\nfostering a radical egalitarianism in terms of income class and power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
p. 30 \u201chowever it is no longer possible to make suggestions\nof radical reform .. without also taking account of the urgent need for them to\nbecome environmentally sustainable\u201d\u2026 \u201crather than having to tighten our belts\nand accept a deterioration in our real equality of life, we show that the key\nis to replace materialism \u2013 as a false source of wellbeing \u2013 with a way of life\nmore fundamentally consistent with our human sociality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
p. 26 Perhaps because people tend to imagine that human beings have always lived in hierarchical societies, we rarely, if ever, stop to imagine what it would be like to belong to a community of near equals, free of the insecurities caused by class and status divisions. We assume that the only way to regain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-politics","author-natalieben"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4805,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4804\/revisions\/4805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philobiblon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}