The classic division of Aristocrats and Courtiers and Peasants was recognized commercially by car dealers as Conservative Prospects, Step-up Prospects and Luxury Prospects. Other marketers recognized the same three with different names.
The bottom of each chain is minimalist and satisfied. The top of each chain is maximalist and satisfied. Top and bottom have a traditional relationship of two-way loyalty, which was destroyed by the psychopaths of the Endarkenment.
Step-ups are unsatisfied peasants, constantly striving to please the aristocrats as a vicarious way of being “just like” the aristocrats. They will never reach the top, but aristocrats find Step-upism (aka “meritocracy”) useful as a vent pipe for dissatisfaction.
New thought: Unsatisfied maximalists are psychopaths. Psychopaths are INSATIABLE, seeking to break all external feedback loops and loyalties. Psychopaths have no limits, no internal feedback loops. Nothing damps their infinite need to destroy. The old aristocrats, weakened and dissipated from 200 years of applying “meritocracy”, had no defense when the psychopaths started their Final Solution in 1946.
Polistra's Mill 