Not every member of the ruling class requires fame and publicity (though some certainly do 
) but I now believe they still require our existence to at the very least position themselves favorably compared to where we stand. Or crawl. Or lay.
Much of this is economic, of course. Having a labor surplus and the consequent "churn" keeps the working class precarious and struggling to survive, but there's a personal validation element to it, I believe.
I have some distant relations that are wealthy. I'm talking landlords with holdings up and down the state and beyond. They don't require fame (but I doubt they'd say no to it) but they do want poors like me around, often asking for me by name, for invitations to wine tastings, pompous restaurants, manorside dinner parties, and other ways to flex their wealth on people that don't get to experience that every day.
They won't give you money. Never. They will give you advice and keep insisting that if you don't like bland cold runny (but very expensive) food that it's because you have an undeveloped or unrefined palate. The crudest of such rich relatives actually told me, quote, "you can't appreciate (bland cold runny but every expensive food) because you've been eating shit all your life." Same attitude about wine. I have to agree with the collective consensus of wine snobs regarding the subtle accents of what year and what soil and what kind of wood the cask surely came from, or I'm an ignorant barbarian.
They want me to be an ignorant barbarian. They need that.
It isn't enough to be rich. Someone else has to be poor, and they have to see that difference to assure themselves of their secular Calvinist "elect" status, over and over again.
I think if most rich people lost access to poor people entirely, even if they were in no physical danger, it'd make them feel poor after a while and give them emotional distress.
Recently I've been reflecting a lot on how we all define ourselves in relation to the people around us, to some extent. For example, I've always had a very hazy and unstable sense of self. To a large extent I don't know who I am or what my personality is. But if I compare myself to others I can start to get a better understanding - I'm stronger-willed than this person while more of a doormat than that person, I take better care of myself than this friend but I'm nowhere close to that friend, etc. This is always internal and never vocalized. I'm not using this as some moral judgement, just a way to understand how I fit into the world around me and so understand myself better.
If I imagine taking this idea and twisting it so that my entire identity is dependent on being better than others? I'd like to say it's horrifying, but I genuinely can't do it. I cannot put myself in a headspace of "I'm better than everyone around me. I'm richer and more refined and more sophisticated and healthier and better and..." I'm drawing a blank.
These people are ontologically monsters, aren't they? Top to bottom, inside and out.
Sometimes they didn't both letting me choose and just put whatever it was in front of me, like hundreds-of-dollars-a-plate "authentic" Ethiopean something soggy and damp spongy something soaked in cold and runny walnut sauce, often in pompously small portions where the plate is decorated in ways that were not really meant to be eaten unless you licked the plate, which would violate lots of unspoken but passive aggressively enforced rich asshole etiquette rules.
As for a more specific example, with full disclosure if I must (CW: meat, very gross eating imagery),
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caviar was often a big deal. I'm talking stereotypically a big deal. Of course they condescended to me about abstaining from meat and animal products for that matter and pressured me into fitting in long after I was vaguely promised that there'd be options for "people like me" which weren't there after a long trip where I was hungry and tired and they were already mocking me enough. They made a fuss about how it was from this specific lake (that their peers haven't utterly destroyed, yet) in this specific (exploited and deliberately impoverished) country, and that I was supposed to dance (their word) with each egg dance on my tongue, then wring them out until they pop and savor that delicious interior cold slimy sensation to really understand why it's so special.
They saw the visible disgust on my face... and it pleased them because it confirmed that the poors just don't get it.
Also, they really do make faces like this, especially when talking down to you by talking about how much hardship they went through before they worked hard enough (kissed the elders' asses, did their chores maybe) before inheriting whatever they inherited, implying that you chose not to work hard (working hard for them means lots of wine glass clinking and making deals with other rich assholes and letting their handlers do the actual work, even the paperwork).
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Injera is good, it's much more nutritious than most wheat breads, and its presentation allows for the normalization of sharing.
Ethiopian food is delicious, and at many places $100 will get you a whole tableful of food. Sounds like a restaurant picked up on its trendy side and overprised everything to cater to opulent rich fucks.
It's quite possible it was just prepared a rich asshole way where it was cold and slimy and didn't have to be. I've had dishes (even pizza) presented at fancy parties in ways that were rich asshole compliant and that usually means a lot of pomp and circumstance and performative richness to each ingredient at the expense of actually being pleasant to eat.
Ugh, I can imagine filthy-rich-people pizza.
I need to make an addition to one of my truisms. Americans by and large don't eat food, they eat colors and shapes.... Rich people don't eat food, they eat class signifiers.
Ugh, I can imagine filthy-rich-people pizza.
Imagine a pizza, but with way too many toppings, and the toppings are aggressively trying to be not-for-poor-people. (CW: meat, dairy)
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Brie cheese smeared around Alaskan cod, truffles, Kobe beef (of course), and all of it cold and slimy together because for some reason rich assholes don't like hot food.
It's quite possible it was just prepared a rich asshole way where it was cold and slimy and didn't have to be.
I promise that Ethiopian food is fucking delicious. Spices like I've never tasted, and injera combines the convenience and versatility of tortillas with a perfect chewy/spongy texture. If you ever have a chance to stop by a restaurant please try it out! As with all "ethnic" foods, you'll likely find the best locations in an immigrant neighborhood of any random city.
I believe you.
Supporting what you said, it's a well-known bit of local lore that Mexican food tastes worse the more expensive any particular restaurant with it is around here.
I feel like that's probably true anywhere with any Mexican food. Or Chinese food, for that matter
If you want Vietnamese food, always look for the places with a number in the name. Always.
