Squawking Birdies
In the previous post, I wrote about a skirmish between a bunch of Mynah birds that I observed when I was a kid. While I will never know just what those birds were fighting about, I have noticed through the years that people get into skirmishes over things that may be sillier than what those birds were squawking about. You may notice in the picture that the winged citizens are arguing that SQ = ($)/(AGE) — that is, your “Success Quotient” equals to “How Much Money You Make” ÷ “How Old You Are”.
With this in mind, a person who makes, say, $100,000 per year and is 25 years old has a higher Success Quotient than a person who makes $50,000 per year and is 30 years old, who in turn has a higher Success Quotient than a person who makes $25,000 per year and is 40 years old.
In some ways, there is a kind of “status” or “worthiness” associated with having a higher Success Quotient, or “SQ”, than somebody else. It’s as if the person is somehow seen as being “better than” the other person. In a way, this is sort of like how a person with an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) that is higher than the next person’s IQ is seen as being “smarter than”, and therefore “better than”, the other person.
Thus, young people who make a lot of money tend to be greatly admired by others, and are often envied by others as well. They are often seen as being of a higher caliber of citizenry than others.
Now, everyone wants to be admired and looked up to by others – it’s part of the human ego. It seems that people will go to great lengths to try to look good in front of others and compare favorably to them, often as if in a kind of competition. And it seems that the younger they are when they “succeed”, the better they are perceived to look in front of others!
The interesting thing about the notion of the “Success Quotient”, with its factoring in on how much money one makes, is that the “SQ” that a person is expected to achieve changes over time. This is because money tends to become “less valuable” over time, due to inflation. I have heard it said that in order to be seen as being “successful enough”, a person is expected to be “making their age” in income. That is to say, in this context, that a 30 year old person should be making $30,000 per year, a 40 year old person should be making $40,000 per year, etc. Now, that was a number of years ago, and by now, I’m sure that the “expected” income levels are higher. Nonetheless, it still seems to be the case that people with higher Success Quotients are seen as being “better than” those with lower Success Quotients, just as people with higher Intelligence Quotients are seen as being “better than” those with lower Intelligence Quotients. These are somehow seen as being a measure of the person’s esteem and “worthiness”.
Time and again, I have seen people judge each other by their age, and whatever level of status they have achieved by that age. It even seems to turn into a point of contention at times. Want to hurt someone’s feelings? Just tell them that they’re too old to be at whatever level of status they are at! But be careful – you may end up “tasting a few knuckles” afterwards…
Bird-Brains Arguing Over Status