High society is a term associated with the upper class, often based on family money, name, religion, and profession. It can be seen as a way to maintain social graces or a false barrier dividing people. It has been used in entertainment as both a caricature and a means of portraying values.
Most people have heard of high society. Many different images can come to mind. Almost everyone takes some view of it, but most will associate the term with the upper crust of society, the social register of a city or town, and the movers and shakers who make up the favorites and elite in social situations.
For some people, high society is a concept that is considered archaic and ultimately nothing more than a false barrier between the citizens of a community. In order to allow for the exclusion of people who are undesirable by race, religion, sex or economic status, inclusion in high society is often based on the possession of certain characteristics. These include family money, a family name that has become highly regarded in the community, and attendance at an acceptable place of worship.
In other cases, entry into high society can be achieved by working in a profession considered particularly desirable or respectable, attending schools considered to be of higher quality than others, and living in the right kind of neighborhoods and cities. High society critics note that the whole idea does nothing but divide people into economic and social classes and draw arbitrary lines that help prevent communication and interaction between wide varieties of people.
Others note that high society is not a concept that is meant to exclude anyone, but rather a way to allow people of similar minds and backgrounds to interact with one another. It is a way of ensuring that certain customs and social graces are maintained from generation to generation. The cultivation and maintenance of these social graces is supported by the establishment of a social circle which may appear to be made up of the social elite, but is in fact made up of those who have worked hard to gain admission to the upper class economically and socially. From this perspective, high society is understood as a reward for effort, rather than a means of building walls between people.
High society has been a fertile concept for entertainment over the years. Comedy productions often draw broad caricatures of snooty society men and women and their contempt for ordinary people. Popular dramas have often used the concept as examples of a beautiful veneer that hides a great deal of corruption. In still other cases, it is described as a set of values that ultimately saves the lives and goals of young people, keeping them on the straight and narrow.
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