Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerome 
You must consider that-although only one tiny part of a fully realized human being- a well-dressed person uses more of his intrinsic (cultural) potential as a human than someone who is not well dressed and that makes him beautiful even on a more than physical or superficial level.
But superficiality is a good definition of it: To me vanity- meaning emptiness- is basically a shield, a veil one can hang before the profane and the world in order to keep it out, so that it doesn't defile the inner mysteries that are each ones own.
edit: Unfortunately I don't think that the majority can afford (or know of) genuine morality, so I think it's a mixture of jealousy, as you said, and a vague feeling of fear of the otherness of someone, or a hidden cowardice that makes oneself unable to explore those mysteries, those merely hinted-at things for oneself ...such reservations are quite natural of course but nothing but natural, too.
But superficiality is a good definition of it: To me vanity- meaning emptiness- is basically a shield, a veil one can hang before the profane and the world in order to keep it out, so that it doesn't defile the inner mysteries that are each ones own.
edit: Unfortunately I don't think that the majority can afford (or know of) genuine morality, so I think it's a mixture of jealousy, as you said, and a vague feeling of fear of the otherness of someone, or a hidden cowardice that makes oneself unable to explore those mysteries, those merely hinted-at things for oneself ...such reservations are quite natural of course but nothing but natural, too.
Excellently said.
I appreciate especially your point on the expression of intrinsic cultural potential. If something, or someone, has value, then where is the honesty in displaying it as if it were otherwise? I wouldn't give the missus a pearl bracelet wrapped in newspaper. To limit one's expression of the self is a waste of valuable cultural and human capital. As Ula sang in The Producers, "Ven you've got it, flaunt it." (Within reason, of course)
The line between this and vanity, I believe, is when the visible expression of that quality is dishonest. Appearance should be an expression of what exists beneath, rather than a cloak in which we wrap ourselves to conceal the truth. I think there is a significant pile of psychological research that links excess vanity with issues of self-loathing and feelings of inferiority - a believable relationship, to be sure.
The fears of the majority are, I agree, the root of their disdain. Fear of inadequacy, of mediocrity, of exclusion from something that is enviable and desirable. Mix that with the human tendency to assert superiority in every context, and we've developed an atmosphere in which it is a negative quality to express your positive ones.
Have you seen the documentary The September Issue? Anna Wintour's thoughts on the subject were very interesting.
