It’s especially true when you consider the whole entire tradition of Indo-European poetics and the extreme degree of importance associated with reputation and renown — undying fame, in their words.

All that matters to most white people is being an exemplar of the culture’s moral values. “Making it” in the upper-middle class (or cathedral, or whatever) is best understood for each individual as a game of A) correctly parsing the spoken and unspoken social mores of the day, and B) regurgitating said mores as one’s personal convictions. No pragmatic political solutions or labels can ever stand a chance against a self-augmenting scheme where people routinely manufacture imaginary moral crises as a way of building their own reputations. You have to strike at the root — the morals themselves.