Glory in excesses

The natives of the Pacific Northwest, known as Kwakiutl and other peoples developed a unique social custom to gain status and prestige within their culture. It involved the elaborate gifting and destruction of items of value and utility in great numbers, in order to display both great wealth, generosity and at the same time a quality of indifference to material things.

A practice called “Potlatching” developed where the tribes would gather at certain times of the year and engage in an orgy of gifting and destruction of such prized possessions as canoes, blankets, weapons and other artifacts, thus displaying their wealth and generosity which gained them much prestige. It also had religious significance.

The tribes would in preparation for a “potlatch” spend many months manufacturing canoes, blankets and other commodities which were to be burned as a display of the excess of riches of a tribe, thus gaining the respect and appreciation of the other tribes.

This style of excess and consumption was far from foreign in what is now described as “the golden age” where wealth, elaborate displays of parties, and exaggerated styles became the hallmark of the American rich and successful, ultimately catalogued and analyzed by Thorsen Veblen, in his work “The Theory of the Leisure Classes, “ which gave birth to the phrase “conspicuous consumption.”

While not as flamboyant as the Kwakiutl practices, the lifestyle of the rich and famous of the Golden Age did, share a common blueprint with those peoples, to consume and display great wealth to an obscene level, incorporating it into all manner of social rituals involving status (pecking order) rules for partying and visiting, courtship and friendly relations so as to build up a structure of a society in which every one knew who was important, what deference was due and how important it was to keep one’s place.

Canada outlawed the “potlatch” which was ruinous to the tribes, while the monied caste of the U.S. wealthy continued their extravagances to this day. Many large wealthy homes in fashionable locations, armies of servants and yachts, the floating toys of elegance, continue the competition of the wealthy. Selective criteria developed, old money lording it over the “nouveau riche.” John Dos Passos describing “mello wampum” as a fortune 3 generations old. How the fortunes were amassed became less important in time than the size and influence that they achieved for their founders and scions. Cliques developed, while claiming exclusivity for a variety of reasons, still depended on and clung to the cult of money although sometime disparaged it as “filthy lucre.” First family of this or that soon competed for unique attention and superior status, ultimately looking down upon one another from mountains of self proclaimed superiority.

Our class system, as rigid as the Hindu’s was born. Ethnic barriers were early erected to protect the purity and power of the early elite, less some social climber taint the purity of the bloodline. One could engage in business with members of the despised classes of necessity, but did not entertain nor socialize with them. After all standards had to be maintained.

While some of the rules and barriers have moderated, our society is still stratified by status and money. CEO’s of the major corporations erect several mansions around the world as visible evidence of their success and importance.

Homes, far larger and more elaborate than necessary have become one of the hallmarks of success. The term, “McMansion” has appeared in our language, a disparagement of the overreaching of the over ambitious. Luxury cars, replete with all manner of electronic doodads dominate the automobile market. The advertising industry refers to less expensive vehicles as “econo boxes,” to be eschewed.

In the world of fashion, well-cut, well-tailored clothing is not enough. The “designer” label, and whatever snob appeal it has is as significant. Again, a highly advertised, pricey garment is to be preferred. Each year to be replaced by the latest style.

Trend and flash supplant quality and utility.