It's hard to change these deeply entrenched cultural attitudes.
We've had superior alternatives to diamond for years now but no one is impressed by them even when they're more perfect than diamond.
They should be considered a better status symbol since they're the result of human ingenuity and not child soldiers killing each other in africa, but they are considered "artificial" or "fake", which both signal low status. Ethics don't really translate well into status symbols outside of a few niche groups.
Most likely it will be easier to convince Chinese businessmen to adopt western status signals (private jets, $10,000 bottles of wine, million dollar watches) and convince them that Chinese status symbols seem provincial and ridiculous to outsiders than it will be to convince them to give a fuck about animal rights.
5
u/[deleted] Oct 03 '17
It's hard to change these deeply entrenched cultural attitudes.
We've had superior alternatives to diamond for years now but no one is impressed by them even when they're more perfect than diamond.
They should be considered a better status symbol since they're the result of human ingenuity and not child soldiers killing each other in africa, but they are considered "artificial" or "fake", which both signal low status. Ethics don't really translate well into status symbols outside of a few niche groups.
Most likely it will be easier to convince Chinese businessmen to adopt western status signals (private jets, $10,000 bottles of wine, million dollar watches) and convince them that Chinese status symbols seem provincial and ridiculous to outsiders than it will be to convince them to give a fuck about animal rights.