{"id":101349,"date":"2015-06-12T20:42:33","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T20:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/?p=101349"},"modified":"2015-06-13T21:27:32","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T21:27:32","slug":"why-we-want-to-be-popular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/why-we-want-to-be-popular\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Want to Be Popular!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"meangirls_poster\"<\/a>In school, we all belonged to one tribe at some point. I was a part of the “normal tribe,” if there\u2019s such a thing, neither particularly popular nor particularly well known. The jock\/mean-girl tribe is one most of us should know, the popular kids, if you like. Some universals apply when describing the popular crowd including: sporty, attractive, and charismatic. There are, however, many breeds. Some are academic, whereas some ridicule the nerd tribe for their smarts. Some are kind, whereas some\u2013the most primitive of them\u2013derive pleasure from hurting others. Like all tribes, they\u2019re a varied bunch.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one unfortunate thing, however, that applies to them all it\u2019s the unjustified praise and blind allegiance of their followers \u2026 whether the popular alpha-tribesman soaks it all up, or ignores it, they never correct it e.g. they never respond to a suck-up follower, “well actually subordinate of mine, my joke wasn\u2019t that funny. Your zealotry blinds your rationale. Leave now and revise your membership.”<\/p>\n

In Dostoyevsky\u2019s Notes from the Underground<\/em>, his character Underground Man observes this sort of embarrassing display. Having spontaneously greeted some old schoolfellows, he\u2019s made aware of a seeing-off dinner for their long reigning leader, Zverkov. Despite being less intelligent, arrogant and misogynistic, Zverkov\u2019s good looks, liveliness, success with the opposite sex, and financial standing are what justify his leadership.<\/p>\n

Whether Zverkov\u2019s high-ranking school reputation precedes him or not, when Underground Man rightly undermines his boasts at the seeing-off dinner, the three subordinating followers respond contemptuously.<\/p>\n

\"ducks1\"<\/a>These subordinates have good reasons for following their leader, like a baby duck does it\u2019s parents. The alpha-animal of most animal tribes is most likely to have reproductive success and its offspring are most likely to be healthiest; indeed for Zverkov, his posse and most Homo Sapiens, reproducing and carrying on one\u2019s genes is an innate must.<\/p>\n

By unconditionally supporting their leader, their vested interests may reap the reward of acquiring knowledge and skills, to become a Casanova themselves and spread their seed effectively. Zverkov, Underground Man observes, is also the championing socialite of the tribe, a quality that\u2019s key for networking with socio-economic superiors, of which he has evidently done. It\u2019s because of this he is most prosperous of them all, and so another motive for his tribesman to stay loyal is so they may\u00a0learn these skills.<\/p>\n

As noted, Zverkov isn\u2019t flawless; he is pompous and shows no interest of supporting humanity-something of which Underground Man, at one point says he dreams of doing on a grand scale. Zverkov\u2019s leadership is superficial and self-important, for although copulation and money are easy to come by, improving the world couldn\u2019t be more distant an ideal. Despite all of this, however, something prompts in Underground Man a desire for approval from Zverkov. Underground Man ensures he polishes his shoes thoroughly before the dinner, and speaks of being flattered when Zverkov made advances on him. Although he can rationalize the ludicrous nature of Zverkov, who sees wooing women and boasting of battles as highest precedents, Underground Man can\u2019t help but appreciate Zverkov\u2019s contradictory good nature and lacking in malice when jesting him.<\/p>\n

Alas, the curse of the thinking man is to weigh up another persons positives and negatives, and conclude without bias they\u2019re not evil. A curse for Underground Man, perhaps, because succeeding Zverkov forcefully would be more viable an option if demonization were allowed to ensue, but where it\u2019s not, doubt is able to spread within Underground man, manifesting into the question, “could I do any better?”<\/p>\n

\"images-6\"<\/a>So, it would seem our appreciation\u00a0for the alpha-popular tribesman is either derived from hopeful assumption or justified analysis.<\/p>\n

In Vitaly Sumin\u2019s Notes from the New World (2011)<\/em> the reason we appreciate\u00a0The Poor Guy at the end is because he inspiringly denies money and the implied offer of job security from the weathered popular tribesman, The Rich Guy . Vitaly Sumin has his character pick love instead.<\/p>\n

As conclusions go, Vitaly Sumin induces reassurance and inspiration for many a soul out there,\u00a0 not to suck up to the “biggest guy around” but to do as Vitaly Sumin has articulated: deny the hierarchical social expectations and be your own tribe!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In school, we all belonged to one tribe at some point. I was a part of the “normal tribe,” if there\u2019s such a thing, neither particularly popular nor particularly well known. The jock\/mean-girl tribe is one most of us should know, the popular kids, if you like. Some universals apply when describing the popular crowd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":101350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[61,1,54],"tags":[6],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101349"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104088,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101349\/revisions\/104088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}