Acquisition

Embracing eccentricity I think

Many children of immigrants seek to attend college for one reason: social mobility. The idea is, that you get a degree, get a job, and then place yourself in a higher capital position than your parents. For the particularly ambitious, I like to coin this theory that you can batter-ram your way to wealth. That is, if you work egregiously hard, you can acquire the economic capital to propel you to a better class. It’s a largely capitalist way of viewing things i.e. acquiring use-value by determining the extent of the product of your labor. In a capitalist society, commodities (goods produced for exchange) are imbued with a kind of social power, appearing to have value in themselves. It’s why we believe that our future jobs as investment bankers have impact: it’s the fetishism of the commodities! But I digress, not the point to make here. The point is that this economic capital, this fetishism of commodities, is just a small part of the picture of a person’s climb to wealth. Economic capital cannot exist in a vacuum, nor can people with it be immediately acquianted with the Bourgeoisie.

Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of Capital presents wealth in three subsections: Economic Capital, Cultural Capital, and Social Capital.

Economic Capital, according to him, is just one measly part of the traingle. What creates the positive feedback loop of Capital— of any sort of mobility— is Cultural and Social Capital. To put it simply, Social Capital is who you know, and Cultural Capital is what you know.

The Bourgeoisie, in creating the stratification of our current social structures, have created this dialect of the uber-wealthy, a secret set of codes that are simply there to differentiate themselves from the Protaliteriat. It forces those who exist within those circles to play a constant game of catch-up, of missteps and slides to get to the same position others stumble into. It’s a foreign language: a glance of the eyes, a fleeting reference, the way you walk into a room. It’s your last name, the shoes you’re wearing, where you’re from, who your family is, who you’re drawn to, the friends you’ve had, the way you vocalize your intelligence, what you choose to reveal, what you choose to hold back.

And it’s not exclusive to those who wish to infiltrate the elitist, most pretentious circles. It’s a trickle-down effect, an iron wall that forces apart the wealthy and the not-so-much, a proponent of the diminishing middle class. Understanding people, and making connections, has become an institutionalized, commodified game. It’s a structure that despite many people’s insistence, you cannot exist out of, whether you are engaging directly or not. Very disheartening. But very interesting! ¹

Books In My Circulation Right Now:

Madness and Civilization - Foucault (For my ascent into post-modern philosophy)

The Captive Mind - Milosz (For my equally fun charming ascent into post-Soviet lit)

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez (My professor recommended it!)²

1. This is probably boring to share but I do find these things interesting. And I feel like there are only so many deep revelations about myself I can share before it gets narcissistic. Sometimes it’s best to stop digging into yourself and trying to find truth in other things. Avoids a whole boring old thought loop. I don’t know.

2. Three books at a time are quite ambitious I must admit