As a curious person about anything that has to do with my fellow humans' behaviour, exploring social ladders isn't an exception of what tickles my interests. "Climbing the SL social ladder" was calling me.
I first thought of writing about the dynamics: the people that are up, the people that are down, the different degrees among "down levels". It would be difficult not to mention how the ones being on top of the ladder use their position as a soapbox for their personal life, preferences or witch hunts. How they turn into our Gods to follow, our Example in Life to imitate. It would also be difficult not to talk about how the ones being down would kiss ass until having sore lips, in their attempt to climb steps and receive kind words from the Gods, kind words they could rub on your face if you're on a lesser level. "Look at me, the Gods talk to me and not to you! You're nobody!" It would be mandatory to highlight the hypocrisy and cowardice of those being down, which would never dare contradicting the Gods, even if they do not agree with said Gods, but attack all the other nobodies they don't agree with that belong to a lower level in the ladder, to show they have "an independent opinion". Sweet smiles on your face and knives flying on your back.
However, me being a nobody, I realized I would be soon pointed out like being a jealous person, having secret intentions, using this as a chance for my own climbing up the ladder, and many other spurious interpretations from my true intentions, which are merely observing and describing what I see. So I decided to leave that train of thought, and I tried to explore other aspects.
A ladder to nowhere, in Flickr.
I then thought about how those that are on the top of the ladder decide the trends, even if the trends are stupid. It doesn't matter: everybody being in a lower step in the social ladder will bleat and praise how good the trends are. How those that are on top draw the lines that say "this is right, this is wrong", and never dare having a different opinion or make questions about how they arrived to that conclusion. Never ask who gave them power to draw those lines. It would be also impossible not to mention how those that are down in the ladder drool to be on top, so they are the ones with the self-adjudicated privilege of drawing their own lines.
But trends are a matter of taste, "right and wrong" they'll tell you "this is what the majority thinks", as if the "majority" being a mass could never be wrong, and again, I am a nobody. So I realized I would have some more dozens of interpretations from my words that would never be what I wanted to say, and likely nobody else would even bother in asking me what I really meant.
And so I kept thinking what else I could explore, and got to the conclusion that the only way of safely talking about climbing the SL Social Ladder, is not to talk about it at all. In the tale, the kid pointing out that the Emperor was naked, was considered wise, but in real life, those that point out that the Emperor is naked, are the first ones to be burned.
Credits
Clothes and shoes: Teefy, Baiastice, Gos, Indyra, Milk Motion, Valentina E.Hair: D!va, Truth, Monso
Skins: Glam Affair, Belleza
Ladder & Column Photo Prop: My own (Black Tulip)
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