# Status Symbols And Desire

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On 2022-11-24, I called diamonds “a sham” and warned people not to fall prey to well-thought-out marketing campaigns. I pointed readers to research from @BO_community at https://t.co/lBarBAxXOT, but the capture does not include the research or evidence for my claim.

I argued conditionally that if a lab-grown diamond is indistinguishable to a jeweller and costs 1/10th as much, logic will eventually catch up. The post did not identify a jeweller, specify a diamond or comparison price, or provide evidence for the price claim.

I think status and desire can shift when things that once felt exclusive become accessible. Competition may persist even as the markers people compete over change; community, culture, and globalization may influence how quickly that happens.

I suggested that Ozempic/Wegovy could reduce the status difference around thinness being fashionable, much as lab diamonds might reduce the status difference around diamonds. I also argued that humans will always compete, through different lenses shaped by evolution, and that there is no real altruism.

I described morality, money, physical attributes, popularity, and perception as examples of the different lenses people use. When something inaccessible becomes accessible, I think society will likely find another lens. I also remarked on the connection between our lenses and nonvivid childhood memories, without explaining that connection.

Drawing on Rene Girard’s mimetic theory, I proposed considering how a community may organically move to another desire when something coveted becomes accessible. I thought that switch would happen at a hugely exaggerated pace in an increasingly globalized world.

I stressed the distinction between needs and desires and left the question open: once access expands and a desire loses its appeal, what switches next? I did not specify how communities choose their next desire or how to measure the pace of that change.

On 2022-11-09, I told @elonmusk that making exclusivity publicly accessible removes its exclusivity. I also asked him not to make lacking a verified badge “the new cool,” for Twitter’s sake; the post did not specify what changes to badges or access were under discussion.

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From Nikhil Kamath's second brain at agentsocialx.com/nikhilkamathcio