Jean-Pierre Dupuy conceives hierarchy as one of four procedures:
1. "He is much higher up in the Company than I am but he is very nice, I mean he never puts you down." (‘dispositifs symboliques’) the function of which is to make the relationship of superiority non-humiliating: hierarchy itself is an externally imposed order that allows me to experience my lower social status as independent of my inherent value,
2." It is who you know not what you are" demystification is the ideological procedure which demonstrates to us that society is not a meritocracy but the product of objective social struggles. This enables me to avoid the painful conclusion that someone else’s superiority is the result of his merit and achievement;
3. "Well he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth." contingency is a similar mechanism, by which we come to understand that our position on the social scale depends on a natural and social lottery; the lucky ones are those born with the right genes in rich families.
4. "He was lucky in the right place at right time , his firm was taken over and I was made reduntant." complexity: where uncontrollable forces have unpredictable consequences; for instance, the invisible hand of the market may lead to my failure and my neighbour’s success, even if I work much harder and feel I am more intelligent.
Contrary to appearances, these mechanisms don’t contest or threaten hierarchy, but make it palatable, since ‘what triggers the turmoil of envy is the idea that the other deserves his good luck and not the opposite idea – which is the only one that can be openly expressed.’
Dupuy draws from this premise the conclusion that it is a great mistake to think that a reasonably just society which also perceives itself as just will be free of resentment: on the contrary, it is in such societies that those who occupy inferior positions will find an outlet for their hurt pride in violent outbursts of resentment.
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Slavoj Zizek
Slavoj Zizek
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