Dissection of the social mechanism: The beautiful tend to become popular. The popular tend to become wealthy. The wealthy tend to become powerful.
Examination of how each link in the chain amplifies illusion while eroding empathy.
The paradox of ascension: the higher one climbs, the more detached one becomes from humanity.
III. The Anatomy of Inferiority
The psychology of those at the bottom: The poor striving not to be humiliated. The ignorant masking their ignorance with sensuality, money, or authority.
The dialectic of shame and pride: how humiliation breeds imitation, and imitation sustains the very system that humiliates.
The mirror logic: everyone envies the one above while despising the one below.
IV. The Irony of Dependence
When needing help becomes shameful in a world built entirely on mutual dependence.
The illusion of autonomy as a cultural disease.
How the denial of need is the root of both arrogance and despair.
