"You Can Be A Doctor, A Lawyer, Or a Piece of Shit"

The above quote comes from the movie "Thank God He Met Lizzie" where Cate Blanchett's character explains how she decided on a medical career with that piece of advice from her father. In today's world law and medicine are commonly thought of as highly prestigious & well paying professions. This no doubt explains the enormous student demand for law and medicine at university. I mean it's not like people are queing up for these courses because they like performing bowel surgery or reading 32 volumes of stamp duties law.

What it all boils down to is the desire to reap status & money (which in turn enhances status) is and probably always has been paramount. In effect we are a society of STATUS WHORES. Our entire identities as people have been reduced to our place in the social hierarchy which today is primarily determined by our occcupation. Whenever we meet people for the first time we or they immediately ask "What do you do?" If you say you're an investment banker, a diplomat, corporate lawyer, or plastic surgeon you will get far more kudos than if you say you work in a bookshop, pick fruit, or are a school teacher.

Why is it so? Well it's meritocracy stupid! But who defines merit? Does a $10,000 a day supermodel or a celebrity hairdresser perform a more socially meritorious function than a school teacher? What of toilet cleaners? They perform what I'm sure everybody would agree is a vital task (next time you complain about the state of public restrooms think about it) but does anybody appreciate their contribution? Hardly, they have all the prestige of fresh monkey shit.

At the end of the day we are asking the wrong question, making the wrong judgement. We are not our jobs nor our bank balances ...