"But what will people say," used to be one of the bugbears of my youth. And, of course, I used to be pretty much contemptuous of the 'oldies' for bothering about these mythical 'people' who had nothing better to do than say things about how other people lead their lives.
Of course, when I wore those so-called 'bell-bottom' trousers or had my hair 'step-cut' (anachronisms, I know, but not all of us can be millenials, you know, and, therefore, our youth did happen in a different era), it had nothing to do with 'what people say'. It was a whole different beast altogether. 'Peer pressure', you know, not that stupid oldie thing of people saying things. Not that I could have explained the difference, except that the 'people' who would 'say' would be different - my age group NOT their age group.
Sometimes, in fact most times, I feel this entire damn social climbing game is only the process of trying to shift from being the 'people' about whom things are being said to the 'people' who are doing the saying. (Of course, I mean in the informal pushes and pulls of Society, not in formal hierarchies.)
This jockeying for social position as individuals seems to work largely on the basis of who can criticize how others behave - dress, eat, whatever; and who has to walk on eggshells, with an eye over the shoulder for the ever-watching, ever-critical eye.
Racism, Casteism etc works on somewhat the same basis. The class that sets the rules and sets itself above being criticized. And the class which has to care about what is said of it.
Like, say, the British 'saying' we are uncivilized for eating with our hands and, so, we start pushing around a masala dosa with a fork and knife. Automatically granting the British the position of people who can 'say' and ourselves the position of people who have to care about what people would say.
And then there are those who, sort of by divine right, assume that they are born to be the people who SAY. That THEY are the divine arbiters of what is right and what is wrong. And can never even conceive of any right-thinking person saying anything critical of them. There is a term for it I believe - Megalomania.
And when a class of people or a society is convinced that it is the divine arbiter of right and wrong...
