You're right that every person and every community values status to some extent or another. But in most communities, there is a core (often economic) activity o

You're right that every person and every community values status to some extent or another. But in most communities, there is a core (often economic) activity or set of values that confers status that is not directly related to the status itself. Being a good maintainer or creating useful projects gives you status in the open source community. Rendering or arguing sound, legally difficult decisions confers status if you're a judge. These communities are fundamentally open: anyone who can do those things can join and raise their status in those communities. On other hand, the conspicuously wealthy and hipsters tend towards the extreme end of the status-seeking, with a lot of emphasis on exclusivity. The source of the status is very closely aligned with the status itself. The conspicuously rich country-club set make a little community for themselves just based on the fact that they can prove to each other how rich they are. And the defining trait of a hipster is being able to show how cool they are, which means that status itself is the key to entry in the community. Please note that I'm not trying to beat up on you -- we need status-driven people in the world, else few would ever want to become a politician or a leader. But I do think that hipsters as a community take status drive much further than most other groups, sometimes to comical effect.