Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

502 | HOW THE MIND WORKSWilde in knee breeches with long hair and a sunflower. In the last half ofthe twentieth century conspicuous outrage has become the convention,and we have been treated to a tedious parade of rebels, outlaws, wild ones,bohemians, freaks, punks, shock jocks, gender-benders, mau-maus, badboys, gangstas, sex divas, bitch goddesses, vamps, tramps, and materialgirls. Hipness has replaced classiness as the motor of fashion, but the statuspsychology is the same. Trend-setters are members of upper classeswho adopt the styles of lower classes to differentiate themselves from middleclasses, who wouldn't be caught dead in lower-class styles becausethey're the ones in danger of being mistaken for them. The style tricklesdownward, sending the hip off in search of a new form of outrage. As themedia and the merchandisers learn to market each new wave more efficiently,the avant-garde merry-go-round goes faster and more furiously. Aregular feature of urban newspapers is the favorable notice of an "alternative"band followed by haughty letters advising that they were good whenfew had heard of them but that they have now sold out. Tom Wolfe's mordantsocial commentaries {The Painted Word, From Bauhaus to Our House,Radical Chic) document how a thirst for status in the form of hipness drivesthe worlds of art, architecture, and the politics of the cultural elite.FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCESPeople bestow favors on one another even when they are unrelated andhave no sexual interest. It is easy to understand why even the most selfishorganism might want to do so. If favors are traded, both parties profitas long as the value of what they get is greater to them than the value ofwhat they give up. A clear example is a commodity whose benefit showsdiminishing returns. If I have two pounds of meat and no fruit, and youhave two pounds of fruit and no meat, the second pound of meat isworth less to me than the first (since there's only so much meat I can eatat a sitting), and you feel the same way about your second pound of fruit.We're both better off if we exchange a pound for a pound. Economistscall the benefit a gain in trade.When traders exchange goods simultaneously, cooperation is easy. If theother guy is reneging, you hang on to your meat or grab it back. Most favors,however, cannot be retracted, such as sharing information, saving a drowningperson, or helping in a fight. Also, most favors cannot change hands at