52 Chapter III
USES AND ABUSES OF SOCIAL RANKThere were, however, certain problems and paradoxes created by the institution of
nobility. The hierarchic character of society produced difficulties for aristocrats
themselves, for those beneath them yet close enough to mix with them or aspire to
join them, and for society as a whole considered as an association of human beings
with practical needs to be met.
A distinction may be drawn between two kinds of rank. On the one hand there
is (or was) a diffuse kind of rank, or social standing, generally derived by the indi-
vidual from the family of his birth, built into his personality from childhood, con-
ditioning his attitudes to other persons, above him, below him, or his equals; a rank
or standing accompanying a person everywhere, showing in his bearing and in his
clothing; in the street, in the shop, or in the drawing room; in public and in pri-
vate; among his intimates and in the presence of strangers. The man of quality in
the eighteenth century expected to be, and usually could be, promptly recognized
as such. It was this kind of rank that Gibbon wished his French friends would see
in him, when they received him merely as an accomplished man of letters. The
other kind of rank may be called specific or functional. It is rank held for a particu-
lar purpose within a particular organization of limited scope, and without signifi-
cance outside the organization; a rank, or position, conveying a certain authority
and a certain responsibility for the achievement of certain ends, set above some
ranks and below others, but only within a chain of command or a hierarchy set up
for a particular purpose, and outside of which the individual is considered to be
like others. A major- general in civilian clothing doing his Christmas shopping in
a department store becomes merely a shopper; he takes his chances with others,
and cannot expect any unusual deference. A bank president driving his car through
city traffic becomes merely a driver; he takes or yields the right of way without
consideration of social standing; he may grumble, but grumbling does him no
good; basically he accepts, and must accept, the equality of all persons who are
equally competent as drivers. Doubtless the two kinds of rank overlap, in that dif-
fuse or social rank helps to determine occupation, and specific or functional or
occupational rank carries over into personality and social standing. But the two are
distinct enough. As Thomas Paine was to say later in a highly inflammatory work,
if a man is called a judge or a general one may form some impression of what he is
and what he does, but if he is called a duke or a count one can form no idea of
what he is or does, or even whether he is a man or a baby.^17
All societies require systems of specific rank. And a sort of diffuse rank will
doubtless always exist. The peculiarity of eighteenth- century society was that spe-
cific rank was so largely determined by diffuse rank. It is probable, quite apart from
the ethical merits of aristocratic and democratic institutions, that a complex and
highly articulated society, moving toward what are called modernization or indus-
trialization, will operate more efficiently, with less friction, complaint, or grievance,
and with more effective discharge of its multifarious business, if specific ranks are
filled with the least possible regard to diffuse rank, if generals are chosen purely for
17 Rights of Man, Everyman edition, 60.