H O O K E D - Living the High Life: Not All About Money

Living the High Life: Not All About Money

Written by Corinna Choh

With oodles and oodles of money, you can go anywhere, literally and figuratively. But really, is it that easy to attain the same level of cultural sophistication? HOOKED shows you the other side; money does not always make the world go around.

So you think you’ve got it down pat, when you go through the mental checkboxes as you work towards your dream of becoming a rich tai-tai (read: non-working women living a decadent lifestyle).

another_air_kiss

Well, if you are rich, you can afford to stay at home, pack your day with spas, facials and mani-pedi sessions, till the cows come home. And then you’d waltz off at night with your equally swanky hubby, to a posh “invites-only” party where the hors d'œuvre (pronounced “or-derv” and yes, there is no plural to this) come with black rubies (caviar) on delicate crackers, and people down the bubbly as if it is water.

Ah, and let’s not forget the air-kisses, cheek-kisses, bouffant hair, glitzy gowns and getting your photograph permanently inked as proof of your presence, having made it to high society in a socialite’s magazine.

        Yet money does not buy class.

        What I mean by that is not just moving into another social group, but social capital. The zazazoom of what it means to have that kind of money – the graciousness, poise and grace.

        If one has the money, and ‘old’ money at that, like Paris Hilton, but goes about acting campy and a harlot, that automatically disqualifies you for any category other than ‘tramp’, ‘attention-seeking’ and all other negative adjectives that you can possibly think of.

        Think about it, the actions of the nouveau-rich differ markedly from those of old money. Take high art for example. There is a big difference between appreciating it and then acquiring it, as opposed to simply buying it because it’s the way to go - to decorate one’s abode with fancy art pieces because that is what rich people do.

        The thought goes like this, “I am rich, and rich people buy high art. I will buy high art and I’ll be damned if I’m not considered atas (read: high class) after going through all this."

        The difference lies in the knowledge of what you are doing and why exactly you are doing it. Paying tens of thousands of dollars for an object, which one has no idea what it entails other than it has a recognizable but unpronounceable name (i.e. A.Lange & Söhne), defeats the whole purpose.

        I think there is something more than just money – it is social capital.

        By social capital, it already implies that one has that inner quality of knowing how to act in specific social settings. During a posh dinner, it’s that intimate knowledge of knowing how to use your dinner utensils, like how a duck takes to water. It’s also schmoosing with the “right” crowd and engaging in common activities that sets the atas people apart from us, mere commoners.

Therefore, it’s having the right connections too.

The frequent social engagements from charity balls, to charity golf tournaments all mean that one runs around the same circles. It can be the same country club, or professions. The doctors, surgeons and specialists will be in one, the lawyers in another, bankers and finance analysts in yet another.

These often-unintended groupings increase the frequency of one bumping into someone else with similar lifestyles and interests. The more one goes around in these circles, the more one establishes his/her ‘place’ and emphasizes their status in society. These activities help to entrench one’s position and with the rest of the society looking and judging, it’s high-pressure to not slip up.

How about dear junior then?

Being sent to ‘pedigree’ schools means that junior’s lifestyle is also honed on the outside and not just what the parental units decree – piano lessons, violin lessons, drama lessons, phonetics courses etc etc.

But herein is where perhaps time, in the form of generations, makes a difference. The idea here that money, accumulated wealth, needs to ‘mature’ and ‘grow’ into being with the family. I suppose that’s why they named the term ‘old money’, aye? Aye.

So it is not just the activities and what we (should) do to propel us into that next upper strata of society, because everyone can attend a ballet performance, especially when it is made available to the masses through programmes like Ballet Under the Stars, or when the Singapore Arts Festival rolls round, shows are staged in the heartlands.

It is about having the right connections, that innate poise and grace that ‘grow’ into wealth. It’s the crass, in-your-face type of money versus the subtlety of wealth that differentiates the effortless atas from the other, who is desperately trying to claw his/her way through. hooked

Images courtesy of Google Images

Comments
Written by Guest on 2008-03-31 06:54:55
:grin
Written by Guest on 2008-03-31 20:17:50
:upset
Written by Guest on 2008-03-31 21:30:17
"By social capital, it already implies that one has that inner quality of knowing how to act in specific social settings. During a posh dinner, it’s that intimate knowledge of knowing how to use your dinner utensils, like how a duck takes to water. "

You are referring to cultural capital here. If you are indeed using social capital in the Bourdieurian sense, then it would be akin to that below:

"It’s also schmoosing with the “right” crowd and engaging in common activities that sets the atas people apart from us, mere commoners. Therefore, it’s having the right connections too"

Although, the usage in the above quote is somewhat obliquely in refrence to cultural capital as well, since the context is on being with the "right" crowd, and engaging in the "right" activities.
Written by Guest on 2008-04-01 07:28:05
:sigh
Written by Guest on 2008-04-02 11:39:53
to be all that (the poise and grace class as described above) , you have to be brought up that way. gotta be chauffeured till u decide to take an excursion on the MRT. gotta be dining at posh restaurants till u ask whats the dress code for a dinner at the hawker centre.

try as u might, but if you weren't born and bred this way, u will feel utterly miserable trying to live their lifestyle. regardless of how much money u have.

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