4 August

Why does it matter so much to understand that our lives are run by status games? That our particular culture uses a status economy developed in high schools and then rolled out to all of adult life? Well, it matters because that’s our lives. There’s also a reverse proof. What happens when status is stripped away from somebody? You could list the worst emotions or feelings or experiences a person could have. Things like depression, sadness, loneliness, grief. But they all pale into insignificance next to one feeling or experience. Humiliation. Humiliation is the most toxic and destructive of all human experiences. Humiliation is the loss of social status. Research has found that experiences of humiliation for example are central to the history of most serial killers. The German experience with Nazism was driven by humiliation experienced as a country after WW1. Humiliation is literally soul destroying. It was also the core of Christian culture and teaching. Christ carrying his own cross, to be crucified, the ultimate humiliation. Christianity targeted status above all else, and Christ absorbed all of the status games of humankind into himself, short-circuiting them. It’s how Western societies managed to survive for centuries. The ultimate status figure, the son of God himself, accepting the greatest humiliation so that humans would stop these games amongst themselves. El Greco knew it, with his painting.