Major Paper 2 Rough Draft . This paper is very rough, I’m coming to realize that I may have too many points that I’m trying to talk about at once and have them all relate to each other at the same time. I would really appreciate feedback on the parts I have highlighted in yellow and I apologize for lack of a conclusion but I felt like I needed to figure out more of a direction before I put in an ending. Thanks!
Becca Prashner
Major Paper 2: Rough Draft
Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments can be used to explain Dan’s actions, popularity, and role as a character in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. If Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiment is an outline of morality, or what makes an individual respected in a monetary society, than Dan is an example of a person who obtains all of Smith’s admired qualities. His every action in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is geared towards gaining the admiration of others, which in Disneyland translates directly into wealth (Whuffie). Even when Dan does not behave in a moral way- such as when he has his best friend murdered in order to increase his own Whuffie- he keeps up the appearance of being an upstanding individual. The difference between Dan in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and someone who accumulates power and good “moral sentiment” in today’s world, is that Dan singlehandedly bought his standing by helping a rival plot Julius’s death. Dan’s plan works, and his Whuffie skyrockets. Dan’s underhanded success in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom raises a few significant questions about the real difference between Disneyland, today’s world, and the time of Adam Smith: can status be bought for a price, and to what extent is one’s standing in society an actual gauge of one’s real moral worth? In Disneyland, the respect of others is a commodity that can be paid for. Though this may not be completely true in today’s world, the modern era does share some of this quality with Disneyland.
Dan measures his entire worth as an individual against his reputation with others. Once his job convincing technophobes, or skeptics, to become immortal in Disneyland is obsolete, his reputation plummets. Dan loses the will to live, and decides to go to a “death parlor” to have himself killed. However, he is convinced to stay around and improve his social standing, and accumulate Whuffie, because as Lil puts it, “If you killed yourself right now, you’d just be a washed-up loser who couldn’t hack it… Get that Whuffie up, too. Then he can kill himself with dignity.” Lil meant that if Dan were to kill himself in such a lowly state, nobody would care because of his low social standing. The fact that Dan is convinced by this argument shows how important popularity is in The Bitchun Society. That one who was about to kill himself would put it off until he increased other’s opinion of himself shows how much the value of the individual is tied up in how he is perceived by others. And, what makes an individual popular in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is exactly what makes a person valued in Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiment: success, or the appearance of it. In this way, Disneyland is directly subject to Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiment. Dan must raise his status in order for others to take his misfortune seriously. For, as Smith’s puts it, society’s sympathy for an individual can be measured by their socioeconomic standing: “It is the misfortunes of Kings only which afford the proper subjects for tragedy… All the innocent blood shed in civil wars, provoked less indignation than the death of Charles the 1st.” Adam Smith echoes Lil’s statement to Dan. Society cares more for one king than any number of undistinguished individuals. Similarly, if Dan should die poor, he would die in obscurity and disgrace. Therefore, it is most important that he accumulate Whuffie and increase his status in any way he can.
The only difference between Adam Smith’s time and the futuristic Disneyland, is that the appearance of success, youth, and beauty can be bought more cheaply in The Bitchun Society. In the Bitchun society, all one has to do to keep up one’s youth is make a younger backup of oneself. The appearance of success and popularity, or Whuffie, can also be bought by doing favors for others. All Dan does to accumulate status is cooperate with Debra in murdering his own friend, Julius. Still, as in Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiment, it does not matter what Julius actually did to accumulate the wealth. All that matters is his apparent status. In the Theory of Moral Sentiment, Adam Smith explains how the actual character of the rich and powerful has little to do with how society perceives them. They are judged by their status alone. Speaking of wealth and posterity, Smith elaborates, “Compared with these, in his own times, and in his own presence, no other virtue, it seems, appeared to have any merit. Knowledge, industry, valour, and beneficence, trembled, were abashed, and lost all dignity before them.” In this way, the world of Adam Smith and The Bitchun Society are not so different. It does not matter by what merit Dan acquires his wealth, as long as everyone can see that he has it. This discrepancy between the actual merit of the rich and powerful and their esteem in society is noted in the Theory of Moral Sentiments:
“It is scarce agreeable to good morals, or even to good language, perhaps, to say, that mere wealth and greatness, abstracted from merit and virtue, deserve our respect. We must acknowledge, however, that they almost constantly obtain it; and that they may, therefore, be considered as, in some respects, the natural objects of it. Those exalted stations may, no doubt, be completely degraded by vice and folly. But the vice and folly must be very great, before they can operate this complete degradation.”
Smith means that wealth and power alone garner respect, apart from merit and virtue. He even suggests that the wealthy and powerful may be absolved from a certain degree of corruption by virtue of their social standing. This would explain Dan’s sudden popularity when he accumulates large amounts of Whuffie from Julius’s murder. Lil immediately dumps Julius for Dan, and Dan gains the admiration of Disneyland. Although throughout the story no one knows the circumstances of Dan’s new wealth, the very fact that he has it gets him respect. However, when he admits that he killed Julius for Whuffie, his social standing plummets. This may be a case where “the vice and folly” was great enough that Dan’s social standing was completely degraded. Dan’s case is an example of how society reveres the rich without examining how they came by their wealth. That someone like Dan could plausibly get away with the murder of his best friend affirms Smith’s statement that wealth and greatness alone should deserve respect.
Dan is a literary example of a real phenomenon. Many people come by wealth and power through dishonest means. This illustrates the chief moral conflict of both Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom: one’s status in society does not necessarily coincide with one’s actual value as an individual. Wealth, power, and Whuffie are poor gauges of individual merit. As Adam Smith says in his Theory of Moral Sentiment:
“This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often most unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages.”
The “disposition” to admire the wealthy and despise the poor is what leads Dan to murder Julius for Whuffie. In this example, Adam Smith’s statement that admiration of wealth corrupts our morals is correct. In the real world as in Disneyland, it is backwards that a man should murder his best friend in hopes of gaining status. Still, people gain wealth and admiration in dishonest ways every day.
Dan is one example of the corruption of moral sentiment by the admiration of wealth alone. Disneyland is the ultimate example of a morally corrupt society. The “moral sentiment” of Disneyland is entirely based upon wealth, for one’s wealth is the opinion of others and the opinion of others one’s wealth. This is what causes Dan to murder his best friend to gain social standing. The value of human relationships loses all meaning when there is a direct price on acceptance. In this way, The Bitchun Society is the ultimate example of putting monetary prices on human beings. Dan is, therefore, a complex character. The morally bankrupt state of Disneyland, to which he converted others, stamps out his will to live. At the same time, he exploits the worst aspects of The Bitchun Society in order to achieve his ends. Dan’s character is aware of the emptiness of a society that places such value in an individual’s social standing, so he has no problem exploiting it.
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