On the Nature of Superficiality

Think about it; if you really are "better" in some way than everybody else, you don't really need to advertise your virtues, because it's already obvious to everyone who's actually paying attention in the first place.

Like how, all the girls that aren't quite as pretty seem to have an irrational hatred for the girl who actually is the prettiest one in the class; a truth that is already painfully self evident.

In other words, if you've got to advertise all the time, or go out of your way to put others down to lift yourself up, you probably don't really have (or fear that you don't have enough of) what you're trying to sell the general public on anyway.

So "saving face" doesn't really generate face, or any kind of genuine social clout. In most cases, it just makes you fake. And only the dumbest, "fair weather friend" kind of people are going to play along or buy into all that superficial BS anyway.