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Story
August 5, 1960
St. Paul Recorder
Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota
What is this article about?
Analysis of American society's pyramidal structure, fluid mobility, acquisition of status symbols through abilities, resulting anxieties from scarcity and failure risks, leading to frustrations, aggression, and displacement onto lower groups.
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We Live In
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Our highly fluid and mobile society and other societies which are relatively static and feudal is to be found in the fact that preferential status symbols can be acquired, with notable exceptions, largely through one's own abilities. These exceptions are often significant and help to make general mobility and the resulting anxiety more bearable.
It can be said that American society is basically pyramidal in nature. The number of attainable success symbols decreases as one moves up the vertical scale of mobility. The possibility of failure is therefore increased.
The anxieties related to mobility are constant and ever-present and are often intensified by the recognition that status symbols, like all items of value, are not unrelated to scarcity.
The recognition of this scarcity is made consciously or unconsciously by most Americans. Sooner or later, they recognize that their own abilities and the very nature of the system impose limitations upon what they can achieve in their own lifetime. This recognition often leads to frustrations and to aggression which is sublimated or displaced.
The existence of lower caste-like groups (which segregated housing makes possible) often serves the purpose of providing members of the superordinate group with symbols on which they may displace and sublimate their aggression.
(Continued from Page 1)
Our highly fluid and mobile society and other societies which are relatively static and feudal is to be found in the fact that preferential status symbols can be acquired, with notable exceptions, largely through one's own abilities. These exceptions are often significant and help to make general mobility and the resulting anxiety more bearable.
It can be said that American society is basically pyramidal in nature. The number of attainable success symbols decreases as one moves up the vertical scale of mobility. The possibility of failure is therefore increased.
The anxieties related to mobility are constant and ever-present and are often intensified by the recognition that status symbols, like all items of value, are not unrelated to scarcity.
The recognition of this scarcity is made consciously or unconsciously by most Americans. Sooner or later, they recognize that their own abilities and the very nature of the system impose limitations upon what they can achieve in their own lifetime. This recognition often leads to frustrations and to aggression which is sublimated or displaced.
The existence of lower caste-like groups (which segregated housing makes possible) often serves the purpose of providing members of the superordinate group with symbols on which they may displace and sublimate their aggression.
What sub-type of article is it?
Social Analysis
Sociological Essay
What keywords are associated?
Social Mobility
Status Symbols
Anxiety
Scarcity
Aggression
Caste Groups
Where did it happen?
American Society
Story Details
Location
American Society
Story Details
American society is pyramidal with fluid mobility allowing status symbols through abilities, but exceptions exist. Mobility causes constant anxiety due to increasing failure risk and scarcity of symbols, leading to frustrations, aggression, and displacement onto lower caste-like groups.