It’s politically incorrect to say so, but status matters.
Now I’m sure many Dhaka Tribune readers go around all day spouting egalitarian bhais, mamas, and khalas, but in a deeply stratified, class-obsessed society like Bangladesh, it’s impossible for anyone not to be acutely conscious of status.
Even if you think you’re not, you won’t be able to avoid everyday refrains such as “who are you related to” or the silent “don’t you know who I am” of selfish queue jumpers.
It is easy then to appreciate why university professors have been so upset that the new public pay award downgrades their status to one below top civil service secretaries, that all public university teachers have gone on strike. After all, when, before the award, they shared the same rank and it is they who teach Bangladesh’s elites in the first place, who can blame them?
Mind you, I’m not sure the benefits of VIP status are all they’re trumped up to be. More first row seats at interminable functions or noisy concerts, I suspect many would rather not.
But if they don’t fill up the empty spaces, they incur the quiet wrath of those behind who might like to get closer. Meanwhile those on stage, especially wedding musicians, lose out either way, even if they can lay claim to the highest status.
To take VIP lounges at airports as another example, free drink, snacks, magazines, and the chance to sit down for hours -- just like on the long haul flight you’re waiting for -- the benefits are mainly illusory.
And as for benefits which do make a real difference, like queue jumping or holding up traffic, these all either come at the expense of the greater good, or many people think there may be others more deserving of the status.
To stretch out the airport analogy, consider the difference between the VIP privileges accorded a few, to the often disdainful treatment meted out to the many migrant workers on whose multi-billion dollar remittances the economy relies.
Even so, as a comedian, I have to be grateful for the ample material provided by notions of status. And airports of course. Not least, in wondering if “mere VIPs” are ever envious that VVIPs get their own armed battalion building on the Airport road.
As you might have guessed, I would prefer to agree with those who say chasing prestige for the sake of it is a fool’s errand. But I have to admit thinking about status is unavoidable.
Human beings cannot help it. Even the art of not caring what other people think of you is a passive-aggressive form of oneupmanship.
The organisers of Hollywood award shows like the Golden Globes, for instance, know full well that having a compere prick pomposity by ridiculing their gatherings of pampered overpaid celebrities, is guaranteed to draw public attention and help keep their flame of fame alive. For their part, the participants also know that being seen as able to take a joke is good box office.
Stand-up comedians have to be very attuned to this type of mass psychology. Self-deprecation and playing up one’s flaws (low status) are a proven way to make crowds laugh, but step too far and a performer can easily lose the thread and their confidence. On the other hand, poking fun at others (high status) brings its own pitfalls. If you go too far, or pick the wrong targets, you have to be on top form not to lose the sympathy of the audience.
Status, whether as perceived by oneself or others, can’t help but count.
No surprise then, that the Mexican drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, felt aggrieved enough by the greater notoriety of Pablo Escobar, to want Hollywood to make a film about him.
As we all know, hubris comes before the fall, and Guzman’s secret meetings with actor Sean Penn predictably played their part in helping authorities track him down, so now he is in custody awaiting extradition to the US on multiple charges.
Fact is, it didn’t matter to El Chapo how big his Wikipedia entry is, even if it does say the DEA considers him the “godfather of the drug world.”
What use is a billion dollars if you have to live in prison or in hiding, and your nickname means “Shorty”?
Even if it sounds less like a masked Mexican wrestler than his close associate, Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal, I wager El Chapo was jealous that Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, the friend he put in charge of illicit methamphetamine production, became known as the “Crystal King.”
It’s okay to insinuate. With the charges he faces, he’s not going to be suing anyone for libel any time soon.
And anyway, if biopics of the type we are told El Chapo wanted made have taught the world anything, it’s that gangsters place undue weight on notions of “respect” and status. Even if, as it turns out in his case, it meant compromising the low profile his chosen profession requires.
Very poor timing for his ego then, that in terms of global media, David Bowie’s death has sucked away the oxygen of publicity that El Chapo so craves.
Like the truly greatest stars, Bowie, who had already secured his reputation for life before the mid-1980s, knew better than most the wisdom of old adages about the benefits of avoiding the limelight and keeping fans wanting more. Hence, this week’s outpouring of internet grief, though not to everyone’s taste, has hardly been surprising or undeserved.
For people whose reputation or public respect doesn’t reach the heights of David Bowie, however, it doesn’t matter what they do. Witness the Internet hate for Rupert Murdoch’s engagement to Jerry Hall this week. What for other celebrities might have been perceived as a subtly romantic gesture, (a small classified ad in the Times) has been pilloried from pillar to post as the ultimate in “humble-brags” -- as well as providing an excuse for jokes about his age.
He couldn’t win, and doubtless knew it, but then if anyone can afford not to care about status and what others think, Murdoch definitely falls into that category.
And perhaps the rest of us could all benefit from doing the same and taking illusory ideas of status less seriously. After all, at the end of the day when the Grim Reaper comes, status turns out not to matter at all and equality is at last guaranteed.
