The closer you get to leisure class the more ambitions barbellize: trivial, like seeking out the best chips, or save-the-world. Nothing in between.
Does not bode well for postscarcity utopian dreams. They will be unstable.
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where does pursuing personal taste fit? eg getting into songwriting. I guess trivial
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If it's hard most people won't really pursue it. Just pretend to.
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Heh that's actually a major theme in the novel i'm working on; most musicians are LARPing for the sake of participating in a scene
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Successful entertainers need not necessarily be talented artists, just professional narcissists (not necessarily judging but stating matter-of-factly)
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It's a diversion from original topic...but celebrities often succeed by blurring lines between pretending to be popular and achieving it. Self-absorption is a necessary trait, and again, it may not be malevolent, just...narcissism.
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yup... a metaphor swirling in my head is that there's a sort of 'personality gravity', and it also acts extra hard on certain kind of people.
what's nuanced is distinguishing geek-cool from sociopath-narcissism-zombie-capitalist cool. Most ppl dont care anyway
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Slurms Mackenzie, the original party worm. It's kinda like method acting. Doesn't even need narcissism. Just financial incentives and a talent for faking sociability and popularity. Explains introverts in acting and other more sociable professions.


