Hierarchy

Abstract

Hierarchy. Distinctions of wealth, social power, authority, usually based upon material prosperity, social actualization, material well-being.

The love of wealth is therefore to be traced, as either a principal or accessory motive, at the bottom of all that the Americans do; this gives to all their passions a sort of family likeliness … . It may be said that it is the vehemence of their desires that makes the Americans so methodical; it perturbs their minds, but it disciplines their lives.

Alexis de Tocqueville (1835), Democracy in America, Third Book, Chap. 1

In battle or business, whatever the game,

In law or in love, it is ever the same;

In the struggle for power, or the scramble for pelf,

Let this be your motto, – Rely on yourself!

For, whether the prize be a ribbon or throne,

The victor is he who can go it alone.

–John Godfrey Saxe, The Game of Life, Stanza 7