Human beings are all in need of status. You lie to me if you say you don’t. But then, is it true that people who are driven by status seek to move up higher and faster in this world. Yes and no.
We all know that status driven people want to become somebody famous, rich and wealthy, so as people are impressed by their reputations and enjoy the attention given to them. If those are indicators for ‘moving up’ the staircase of the rich and successful, then, of course the answer is yes.
On the other hand, we know some people who avoid status and prefer to become egalitarian people for the sake of life simplicity, seeking humbling experience through a balance in life and maintaining zuhud-kind of life style. These people don’t bother much about status but sometime they are bestowed with status without they recognize it. So whether they move up or not the social strata, the answer is, we don’t know.
Malaysian are highly feudalistic, status-conscious society. A friend told me this joke on his experience in the business class. He was in a plane and a Flight Attendant was just calling, ‘anyone here …Dato’….’ and to his surprise 4-5 people put up their hands. If you a CEO of a large corporation without a title, there must be something wrong with you, not the society. The title often facilitates your work dealing with people, banking institutions, agents and media because those institution classify people according to their social status. Nevertheless, some people misuse their status to manipulate bank, organize illegal clan and hence, throw it to the drain for the status bestowed upon them.
Then, do you think that some of motivators with the title of ustaz and Dato’ Dr are lying when they say, don’t go ‘dunia’ and its heritage but they themselves are running high and low for status and its symbol.
A nice food for thought for today. Bye and cheers..
Idea-logy 