Aside from money that is? I've noticed that having to be the center of attention and taking claim to certain assets in one way or another is sort of intrinsic to human nature. Even for those who say they are not like that. It seems that every country/government/organization has its cliques; its elitist group or cast system. I've observed things and noticed that most things are really of equal quality but in their own way. I've seen paintings that blew me away in detail and artistic merit that were only sold for 20 dollars and I've seen white canvases with black dots in the middle that sold for thousands. What is the difference between these two paintings? I've seen published poetry in anthologies that made me scratch my head and grimace, and I've seen poetry in online workshops that took me back to childhood days getting ripped to shreds. What is the difference between these two poems? I’ve come to think that people themselves establish certain groups and standards for different institutions when they notice that they don’t stand out anymore.
I think that people have a deep rooted desire for drama and need the division between themselves for that reason. For reasons of motivation, ambition, self esteem, foreplay, a sense of belonging, and aggression. People need to feel accepted and part of a group. People like the feeling of being better than someone else, and when they cannot attain that feeling, they create another way of attaining it. I think that when higher classes saw that talent can come from anywhere, they had to create a different movement in the world of art (including literature), so that it would be harder to reach. In short, staking claim to it, and policing it, since they couldn’t produce it. Now at least they can be the judges of it. As proof, take a look at the people who would rather buy Abercrombie and Fitch rather than something from Sears, or even a thrift store. Or people who would spend 200 dollars on a haircut because celebrities go there, or people who would spend 500 dollars on a slice of pizza because of the person who made it. Need I say more? All I have to say is that it makes me sick. It really does. What’s worse, is that these people go through great lengths to justify their sickening behavior, while real people suffer. You can call these so called people in the ivory tower of academia educated, but I think it’s ignorance in its purist form.
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