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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jian" data-source="post: 9826858" data-attributes="member: 78087">Read Very Important People by Ashley Mears, a sociologist and model recording what she observed professionally about the global plutocrat party circuit. Honestly, I found this fairly disappointing, because it’s a dense and repetitive read that says the following things over and over:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Rich idiots spend stupid amounts of money on parties;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">This involves exploiting a lot of people, mostly women;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">They think this makes them the cool people;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">They get snippy if you suggest their parties suck or if someone spends more money than they do.</li> </ol>Frankly, none of this is interesting or surprising. Horrible, but not interesting. It’s not journalism and it’s not great qualitative research either, mostly because Mears clearly agrees with 3), above.One thing I found rather offensive (and I can see I’m not the only one, from sociological journal reviews) is that Mears compares the party circuit to potlatches*, a Pacific Northwestern indigenous custom of holding parties where rich people show off by giving stuff to people. This pretty much misses the basic point, since the parties Mears attends are basically exclusive - you can only come if you’re special - while potlatches were inclusive - everyone gets a present.*Since we’re on an elf games board, yes, I’d say it’s quite reasonable to compare potlatches to Bilbo Baggins’ birthday party, and I’m not the <a href="https://nathangoldwag.wordpress.com/2024/05/31/the-moral-economy-of-the-shire/" target="_blank">first</a> to do so.</blockquote>

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