Quotes About Hierarchy

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

The bureaucracy is a circle from which no one can escape. Its hierarchy is a hierarchy of knowledge.

There's only so much room at the top of the heap. The rest of us are fill dirt.

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

I've always been most interested in the politics of everyday life: your relation to whatever you're doing, or what your ambitions are, where you live, where you find yourself in the social hierarchy.

Politics isn't about left versus right; it's about top versus bottom.

I describe in 'Chimpanzee Politics' how the alpha male needs broad support to reach the top spot. He needs some close allies and he needs many group members to be on his side.

Power is what calls the shots, and power is a white male game.

Everyone may be called "comrade," but some comrades have the power of life and death over other comrades.

Inequality of rights and power proceeds from the very Author of nature.

Big fish eat small fish with as much right as they have power.

Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.

One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression.

Hierarchy often breaks down in the neutral zone, and mixed groupings, such as task forces and project teams, are often very effective. People may have to be given temporary titles or made "acting" managers.

plutocracy would be a civil organization in which the power resides in wealth, in

Of all the communications technologies discussed in this book, radio and television are the most hierarchical; no preceding media could reach so many people so instantaneously and with so little feedback in the opposite direction.

In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but in his face. —DIOGENES THE CYNIC

Cats are solitary hunters with only the vaguest concept of hierarchy and little desire to "please" anyone but themselves

It can often seem that those in power don't want us to enjoy making things for ourselves - they'd prefer to establish a cultural hierarchy that devalues our amateur efforts and encourages consumption rather than creation.

If the existence of bullshit jobs seems to defy the logic of capitalism, one possible reason for their proliferation might be that the existing system isn't capitalism...In many ways, it resembles classic medieval feudalism, displaying the same tendency to create endless hierarchies of lords, vassals, and retainers.

It's not just that some people get to break the rules—it's that loyalty to the organization is to some degree measured by one's willingness to pretend this isn't happening.

Managerialism has become the pretext for creating a new covert form of feudalism, where wealth and position are allocated not on economic but political grounds

In fact, it often happens that, at the very top of organizations, apparently crucial positions can go unfilled for long periods of time without there being any noticeable effect—even, on the organization itself.

top-down chains of command are not particularly efficient: they tend to promote stupidity among those on top and resentful foot-dragging among those on the bottom.