The View from the Bubble...

How Gamma Projection inverts High Status Social Patterns

Flammarion engraving, wood engraving in Camille Flammarion: L'Atmosphere: Météorologie Populaire, Paris, 1888, p. 163.

I want to keep these short, with this and the last representing the max length. The Band is going to revive the metaphysics project, so that will fill the sprawling complexity quota. It’s also going to take forever. These subs keep moving because they’re quick to write. So pick right up. The last one left with the mainstream inversion of high status socialization and why “high status” villains appeal to media consoomers. This one will finish with the Gammas who project the delusion and set up for the low status case study that started all this. A lot has been said about Gammas, so stick to the projected delusion topic. That’s taking the fake, ridiculous inner phantasy and treating it as if its’s how reality really is. IRL, it gifts us the signature self-pwnage and unintentional comedy. In fiction, it defines the distorted hero’s journey and the world it takes place in. The value in this isn’t to find material for yet another breakdown - we all know the formula and lots of people have covered it well. It’s the opportunity to see through Gamma eyes. Reality from inside the bubble. Given the role of media in the House of Lies, it’s important for understanding a lot of modern socio-cultural pathology. But it’s not attractive.

Viktor Vasnetsov, Knight at the Crossroads, 1882, oil on canvas, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.”if you go straight, you won't be alive…”

No point posting a bunch of stills. TVTropes does yeoman’s work if unclear. We’ve all seen the same stereotyped bunch of sorry jokes passed off as high status. Jokes because one of the most striking things is how depowered and lame they are.

Anecdote - Lifting got serious in college and I club sported my way into varsity weight room access. This made me acutely aware from my late teens of my developing physical abilities and the general performance levels for college athletes. The point is that these movies always miss on kinetic high status male physicality. To the point where it seems deliberate.

And [not really that physically gifted] is only one of many telling projections. The Pedowood inverted high status are never smart, kind, funny, resourceful, or brave either. Pointing to a big Gamma pattern - everyone else must be projecting a false front as well, so no one can really be as good as claimed. Just the typical liar’s assumption visible in obvious Gamma discomfort when someone is praised or shares an accomplishment. In their defense, how would they know how formidable men can be? They never challenge or test themselves, so they have no idea how strong and fast men can get. It’s easy to blather in ignorance, especially when the ignorance soothes intense inner resentment. Reality puts an end to it.

Suggesting a possible recurring feature.

The main traits of inverted high status include some combination of

• Insecure, obsessed with nobodies

• Insincere, low value friends

• Obsequious false fronting weasels

• Unjust and willfully cruel

• Dim and unexceptional

• No observable SSH profiles or correlation between character and outcome

Admittedly this is exaggerated for the movies. But movies are like comic books - not terribly realistic, but with big, widely applicable, archetypal examples. The Gamma psyche does need high status to more or less be this in essence. Authorized cretins with no exceptional abilities apart from looks and money. Who occupy the top of an involuntary crab bucket through lies, manipulation, unearned pull, and cruelty. Administrations and authorities actively support their predation because in Gamma phantasy, the system itself is unfair. It has to be since it’s conspired to keep them down all their secret monarchical lives. As a fantasy world, that level of systemic wickedness for its own sake vaporizes narrative realism. How many optional environments do you know where public cruelty is the only observable output? S & M dungeons maybe, but they prefer to limit the “public” part. The bizarrity gets overlooked because of the fast-paced hijinks, lights & sound. But there’s no reflection of objective social reality at all. It “feels right” to the ‘plasm because reality is a glowing screen for them.

Deeper message to soothe resentment…

Status is conferred by the system, not earned within it.

Conversely…

William George, The Boxers, 1954, gouache on board, private collection

Archetypes are useful to good authors because they cut exposition for uncomplicated characters. A “typical” range of behavior is accepted without explanation. Fractitypes do the same for deceivers. The question there isn’t whether objective social reality is truthfully reflected - we know it isn’t. The value is for understanding the psyche that projects that particular phantasm. The counter argument is “who cares?” and on a personal level, I agree. But observe, read, react is natural, not an effort. And the projection of this cumulative inversion has had a toxic impact on modern culture that makes it worth sharing.

Take the fantasy world on its terms and ignore the incoherencies. What can be observed? It’s commonly at or adjacent to an institution, but learning or training is never shown. Any study or work is off screen, other than the requisite classroom humiliation scene. Bonus IQ deduction if the shlubtagonist is addressed as “Mister” Shlub by the psychopath stalker impersonating the teacher. Going only by scripts, the world is a weird hothouse where a select few collude with the overseers to torment everyone else out of sadistic joy. In reality, only something totally involuntary, like a prison, could be that utterly corrupt and evil. Otherwise no one would be there. That objectively doesn’t apply to college or even high school for the generic middle class types in these stories. This tells us we’re dealing with a psyche that sees sometimes awkward institutional phases as iron trap torture chambers. And how severely Gamma fear and resentment warps their perception of of human social relations.

That level of fear and resentment taps into another hero story template - [plucky underdog rebels vs. evil tyrant]. Either the Star Wars or fun-loving slacker/hippy vs. the repressive man version. Start with consoomers, not thinkers. Then hit them with an authoritarian fractitype that can support Palpatine-level revulsion. The types are symbiotic because high status groups are distorted enough to be shorthand for fantasy-tier evil as its own reward. And with quality off the table, banally generic, self-effacing niceness or twee snark can be the stuff of heroic rebellion.

It’s all trickle down inversion from there.

Alfred Stevens, Valour and Cowardice, plaster model for the Wellington Monument, 1857, Victoria & Albert Museum

Some common inversions and the traits they project…

Overall weakness of character inverts high-status dignity and discipline.

Dishonorable liars disbelieve others’ achievements and abilities. And real quality makes failure harder to explain and the delusion seem shabby and awkward. The low status feel better if no one is really outstanding.

Insecurity and obsession with nobodies inverts high status confidence and self-containment

Projected Gamma imposter syndrome. They don’t belong and are paranoid, so they’re fundamentally insecure. But they’re also solipsistic, so they can’t contextualize or get over it.

Puffed-up frauds invert high status competence and accountability.

Like the previous but in the world of action. The Gamma is aware he’s a liar. If others are telling the truth, they really are better… Likewise doubling down when caught out posturing in ignorance.

Manipulative weasels with unfair connections invert charisma and grace.

Not everyone in a high status group is an exceptional achiever. Some are likable and socially pleasant to be around, which I suppose is exceptional in today’s society. If we have to pretend everyone is fundamentally the same, an explanation has to be concocted for the real effects of personal quality. A rigged system explains the discrepancy and the level of evil and introduces structural tyranny.

Pleasure in tormenting and humiliating the weak inverts honor.

Gammas are honorless creatures that lie to cover sloth and cowardice. The mix of pain, fear, and impotence makes them vicious. They would love to revel in power over the weaker. For the high status, predating the weak is dishonorable. Charity and magnanimity are virtues for a reason. Radiate positive energy vs. energy vampire and rising tide vs. crab bucket.

Ricciardo Meacci, Charitas, before 1938, pencil and watercolour,in a tabernacle frame

Of course the low status also need to realize that virtue is not the same thing as choosing to allocate social bandwidth. Good manners, larger purpose, noblesse oblige, or whatever else aren’t invitations to presume some personal interest. If that’s on the table, it only becomes apparent over time. Online socialization lets the timid or insecure hang around in places they couldn’t otherwise and no one minds. Eventually it just gets assumed they’ll be there. And if there’s any real fit, natural socialization will happen. One of the biggest things that could benefit the low status quickly is timing. Sometimes you have to jump, but there’s usually no rush. Take your time and figure it out observationally. Think through patterns like the SSH, then read social situations to see how they manifest contextually. Observe, read, then react. Wash, rinse, repeat. And if you ever feel moved to sympathy at merciless yet comical expunging of Gammas, this may help. Inverted high status is how Gammas would really act if gifted social cachet. As anyone who’s had one for a boss can concur.

On a deeper level, inverted high status supports the assumption is that interaction is natural. Factions competing in a common social world. When in reality there is no competition. Or common world. Only the unwanted intrusion of an infantile a-hole and assertion of status lines. Note who comes to who in these encounters, and who needs to be thrown out of where. Seriously. It’s all projected.

Take the notion of “elitism” as a pejorative. If no moral transgression is involved, it’s just different tastes. Favorite colors or flavors. Why judge somebody for an innocent preference for quality over whatever’s leaking out of the pop culture septic tank? Ironically, the low-status mewl that elitists are the ones turning preference into value judgment. But who is actually fixating on someone else’s personal preferences? The pattern - the simple knowledge strangers disapprove of their choices causes psychic pain. And people triggered by the existence of preference and quality standards are a natural audience for inverted high status villains. The higher you rise, the more they hate you. Something to remember when some turd comes shuck ‘n’ jiving in where they don’t belong.

Alexander Z. Kruse, Music Hall, Ted Lewis, 1905–6, oil on canvas, collection unknown

That’s enough for now. Lying and projecting are sadly common, but assuming everyone does puts high status social patterns out of reach. For internet socialization, understand that people have different time priorities. Among the high status, this rules out sharing excessive nuance until people get to know you. Otherwise they don’t care, and forcing the issue is irritating. Extensive commentary based in personal reflections has to wait until a social picture has formed. Otherwise it’s not credible, defeating the whole purpose. I couldn’t write these posts until people had enough of a read for my anecdotes and observations to ring true. No matter how badly I might yearn to scatter my pearls. To be fair, bursting onto the scene with wall-o-text soliloquies or weird dance moves does form a social picture. Just not one conducive to being taken seriously.

Self-valuation → time value → non-inverted social status

If strangers’ conversation is personally important enough to waste mental energy, ask why? It’s not a rhetorical question. The answer reveals life paths. Not only Gamma delusion. Low-status, hyper try-hard, emotional incontinence is another social ankle weight. A wall o’ texting auto-biographer may really have sage-tier knowledge. But [no means of verification] + [lack of self-dignity] = a waste of valuable time. And that’s irritating. Your social status will become apparent in time.

As we’ll see next post.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sappho and Alcaeus, 1881, oil on panel, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Postscript on The Karate Kid. It plays off the underdog/high-status bullies archetype and Johnny and co. look right out of central casting. but it’s way more nuanced and internally coherent. Not real, but applicable to reality in Tolkien’s sense of the word. And that’s before Cobra Kai fully realizes the characters. I have to write a Band post on it at some point because I think it’s literally the best television show of all time, no hyperbole. Daniel’s confidence, tenacity, courage, and character are legitimately Alpha and blow out the fractitype. Triumphing over adversity with will and effort, getting the girl and dusting the enemy crew one by one before kicking their Alpha’s head off in front of a cheering crowd might be a tell. It not braking suspension of disbelief because of implausibility is the corroboration. And it starting a life pattern of dramatically smoking mortal enemies in front of cheering crowds and getting girls is the confirmation. Johnny is also way more complex and high-character than any cartoon villain. Cobra Kai does a fantastic job with high status people - that Alpha nature != morality and how it can create its own problems.