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Caste and Status Among the BSers
But Crusoe has come a long way and, as a self-made and civilised man, is curious to make some sense of the BSers and their bizarre ways. He observes that although they are a primitive people their social structure is rather complex. Its two main dimensions are caste and status. The basic horizontal division of the clan seems to be a handful of castes (Finance, Accounting, Marketing, etc.); and within each caste is a vertical gradation of status relationships (Professor, Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer, etc.).
Crusoe observes an interesting aspect of caste and status among the BSers: these relationships do not seem to form a simple and hierarchical pecking order. A Lecturer in the Finance caste, for example, might peck a Senior Lecturer in the Accounting caste; a Professor in the Accounting caste pecks an Associate Lecturer in the Marketing caste – and an Associate Lecturer of Marketing pecks a Lecturer of Finance. This non-transitivity of caste and status helps to explain the seemingly incessant bickering and bellyaching among the BSers – and, to visitors from the real world such as Crusoe, the aridity, pettiness and absurdity of their social life. Given their dependence upon the Politicians, BSers (like Academics more generally) see no need to learn the basics by which wealth is created and fructified; exempt from the tyranny (as they see it) of earning a living through voluntary trade, they regard themselves as free to indulge themselves in the pursuit of status and its denial to others. BSers, it therefore seems to Crusoe, are an innately bitchy clan who routinely talk disparagingly of fellow clansmen behind their backs. Social cohesion is apparently maintained through a distrust of outsiders (typically expressed as vague disdain and sometimes overt contempt for the islanders whose property sustains them) and participation in various ceremonies that praise the Politicians.
What at first seems to be a complication that obstructs Crusoe’s understanding of the BSers is actually a key to the comprehension of their otherwise-baffling behaviour. Pecking between castes is not sanctioned by tradition but nonetheless occurs. More generally (and seemingly caused by incipient signs of islanders’ unwillingness to submit to higher levels of plunder, and hence Politicians’ weaker ability to meet Academics’ ever-higher demands for material comfort), the bonds of Academic and BS tradition are not as strong as they once were. Accordingly, high-status members of the clan (such as the “Professor” and “Associate Professor”) tend more and more to peck lower-status members (such as “Lecturer” and “Associate Lecturer”). Such behaviour is regarded as rather tasteless but it carries no formal sanction. Conversely, a low-status member who attempts to peck someone of a higher status runs more concrete risks. He may lose the privilege of being heard at the BS tribal council, may be ostracised and in extreme cases may be expelled from the clan.
In order to clarify the relevance of this observation, a few more things need to be noted about caste and status among the BSers. (Crusoe has already concluded that, like other primitive societies, the BS clan and the Academic tribe are obsessed by considerations of caste and status). The BS words for caste are “cluster “area” or “field.” The territorial connotation of these terms can be misleading: although members of the BS clan are sometimes billeted on a caste basis, different castes tend to intermingle rather than live separately. But this interaction does not lessen the extreme importance of caste and stratification to the BSer’s self-image and identity. One BSer, upon meeting a stranger on Academic Island, will typically introduce himself with the phrase “I am Professor Smith, my clan is BS and my field is Finance.” The coherence and simplicity of this sentence, by the way, is interesting. Like other Academics, BSers normally avoid the use of clear English wherever and whenever they can, and usually seek refuge in thickets of jargon, convolution and outright nonsense. Further, the Anglo-Saxon words that remain in their abstract and heavily Latinised vocabulary are usually used in senses that laymen like Crusoe would not recognise. A “leader” of the Academics, for example, does not actually lead. Quite the contrary: he follows at a safe distance the mob of unduly Academics who occasionally demand that the Politicians plunder even more on their behalf.
The Village or “School”
The basic social unit of the BS clan is the village (“School”). The Schools of the BSers always comprise members of several castes, and the same castes are usually represented in much the same proportions from one School to another. By Crusoe’s way of thinking, this gives the Schools of the BS clan a dreary cookie-cutter homogeneity that contradicts BSers’ vociferous and relentlessly repeated “commitment” to “diversity.” Despite their non-transitivity, a comparison of status relationships in the various castes shows a definite pattern. The dominant feature is that status is closely tied to a ritual called “REE-search” and production of obscure documents (that are part prayer, part miracle and morality play and part comedy), known as “publications that usually contain “models.” The status of a BSer is determined by the extent of his zealous adherence to the “REE-search” ritual and his ability to produce “publications” that contain “models” appropriate to his “cluster.” In what they flatter themselves is part of their tradition but actually seems to be a quid pro quo demanded and enforced by the Politicians (who, amazingly, are able to browbeat islanders to accept the assumption that the Academics provide a valuable “service”), BSers are expected to undertake the “REE-search” sacrament during the day, in the evening and at weekends; to engage in several semi-public rituals (“grant applications”) and a couple of public rituals (“conferences”) per year; and to produce several “publications” per annum.
BSers, then, are motivated by status, and their status depends mostly upon the number of “grant applications” submitted, “conferences” attended and “publications” produced. Disturbingly, however, Crusoe quickly realises that with very few exceptions none of these things have any positive or practical consequences for entrepreneurs, capitalists and rentiers. Indeed, some BSers achieve considerable status and privilege precisely because their “REE-search” and “publications” are, for practical purposes, useless.
These facts help to explain the backwardness and abject cultural poverty of the BS clan. Unlike Crusoe, who struggled to give himself a broad, classical and liberal education, the BSer (particularly the young BSer) is a timid specialist largely dismissive of the pillars of capitalism and indifferent to Western traditions of art, science and civilisation. Accordingly – and also unlike Crusoe, who loves literature and taught himself to read music, speak a second language and play an instrument – the BSer tends to disdain any activity outside his “field” that might interfere with the “REE-search” ceremony and associated rituals. Both the tight linkage between status, “REE-search” and “publications and the conduct of these activities for status-seeking and ceremonial rather than practical purposes, are long-standing and deep-seated. They are also strongly encouraged by the Politicians. To keep the Academics ploughing narrow, boring and irrelevant furrows, and to keep them running madly upon pointless treadmills, is to focus their energies upon pleasing Politicians. It also diverts Academics’ consciences from the immorality of the piracy and plunder upon which their living standards depend.
Whatever might have occurred in earlier times, Crusoe observes that the castes of BS do not now form a universally-agreed rank-ordering. Given the non-transitivity of individual status, the ordering of members from any two castes will usually be indeterminate. Hence the Accountants (parading the privileges of “accreditation” granted to them by the Politicians) assert their superiority over the Marketers (whose elaboration of techniques pioneered by Josef Göbbels has done much for Politicians but has not been reciprocated with particular favour from Politicians). In turn, the Marketers (whose incessant and largely incoherent but nonetheless impassioned talk about “brands” tends to endear them to apprentice BSers) proclaim their ascendancy over the Accountants (whose strict adherence to an austere, detailed and sometimes confusing language mandated by Politicians, GAAP, tends to bore and intimidate apprentices). Other castes seem to have no predetermined opinion about the dispute between the Accounting and Marketing castes – perhaps because, preoccupied with their own “REE-search” ceremonies, they regard both of these castes with indifference or disdain.
Most notably, members of the Finance caste regard themselves as the élite or priestly caste and the other castes as noisy and innumerate hoi-polloi. The rise of the Finance caste seems to be associated with the trend among all BSers towards more ornate, ceremonial and useless “models.” And the relatively low rank of another caste, identified by various labels including “Organisational Behaviour seems to stem from its abandonment of taboos against association with other clans such as Psychologists. Indeed, many BSers, who tend towards xenophobia, regard members of the Org Behaviour caste as the bastard children of illicit sexual intercourse between BSers and Psychologists. They look upon this diversification and enrichment of the BS gene pool with considerable apprehension and as a threat to the moral fibre of the BS clan.
...continued in Part III
 
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