Indian v. Saudi Luxury

[Bransle]

Two very distinctive forms of approaching to luxury: both of them born out of a need to compensate for a lack of status rather than a way of vaunting it, unlike a more "european" form of it. Note that both of these luxuries are irrespective of whether "physical" indians and saudis actually consume the products in each of the categories - These are conceptual races, rather than material ones. It's not even dependent on the product itself, rather, on the motivation to consume it. NFTs, in fact the same NFT, can be taken as both depending on the person - but there's clear tendencies for the motivation due to a product's own qualities: I will offer examples of products that showcase these tendencies, but I wouldn't want it to be a way to just attack people who like things. It's not on the ends, but in the means.

Indian Luxury: Trying to compensate by signalling belonging to a collective hivemind upon which status is projected. MMORPG skins as a very obvious example. NFTs often tend towards this as well. Exclusive clubs - the sex cult from which Hunter Biden was expelled is an indian luxury, despite no indians being a part of it. Monthly subscription apps as well, or "gimmick" credit cars like Magnesis - in fact Billy McFarland tried to build a carreer purely on appealing to indian luxury - and ended up in jail.  

Saudi Luxury: Trying to compensate by exaggerating signs of quality at an individual level until turning them grotesque. New Deus Ex games as an example I put on this very forum prior, as well as new Hitman games. Carbon fiber cars are a Saudi luxury. Beats by Dr Dre as well. Apple products have a tendency towards Saudi luxury. Holidays to a mexican beach or to South East Asia (whether for sex or not) as well.

[anthony]

This car haunts me.

[Lohengrin]

This car haunts me.

The longhouse visualised.....

Your kids will love that it was styled by a video game designer.

I want to take a moment to expound upon "The Line" that the Saudis are crafting. Particularly the concept art I suppose the government itself commissioned from deviantart users.













A poignant reminder that the vast, if not total, majority of inhabitants here will be pajeets, SEAmonkeys, and other assorted folks of the Indian Seas.

From Wikipedia;

According to the architect and urban planner Etienne Bou-Abdo, "the 3D images presented are not classical 3D architecture images", and the designers of the project "have rather called upon video game designers". More worryingly, among the various ideas presented as the basis of the project, there would be, according to him, "a lot of technology that we don't have today".[12]

Do we truly have the first states founded upon the aesthetic ideals of such aforementioned Deus Ex and Hitman video games?

[GraalChud]

Two very distinctive forms of approaching to luxury: both of them born out of a need to compensate for a lack of status rather than a way of vaunting it, unlike a more "european" form of it. Note that both of these luxuries are irrespective of whether "physical" indians and saudis actually consume the products in each of the categories - These are conceptual races, rather than material ones. It's not even dependent on the product itself, rather, on the motivation to consume it. NFTs, in fact the same NFT, can be taken as both depending on the person - but there's clear tendencies for the motivation due to a product's own qualities: I will offer examples of products that showcase these tendencies, but I wouldn't want it to be a way to just attack people who like things. It's not on the ends, but in the means.

Indian Luxury: Trying to compensate by signalling belonging to a collective hivemind upon which status is projected. MMORPG skins as a very obvious example. NFTs often tend towards this as well. Exclusive clubs - the sex cult from which Hunter Biden was expelled is an indian luxury, despite no indians being a part of it. Monthly subscription apps as well, or "gimmick" credit cars like Magnesis - in fact Billy McFarland tried to build a carreer purely on appealing to indian luxury - and ended up in jail.  

Saudi Luxury: Trying to compensate by exaggerating signs of quality at an individual level until turning them grotesque. New Deus Ex games as an example I put on this very forum prior, as well as new Hitman games. Carbon fiber cars are a Saudi luxury. Beats by Dr Dre as well. Apple products have a tendency towards Saudi luxury. Holidays to a mexican beach or to South East Asia (whether for sex or not) as well.

It seems likely that this distinction exists in large part due to differing material and societal conditions in India and Saudi Arabia (and also Qatar, UAE, etc.). 

In a place like India, there is little space for flashy new infrastructure, "futuristic cities", etc., and owning things such as luxury cars, motorcycles, etc. is not feasible because they will either be stolen, destroyed, or allowed to fall into disrepair due to a lack of use, with these things being particularly difficult in urban areas (one can imagine how insanely difficult it would be to drive a ferrari in the streets of Delhi, or, Hitler forbid, try to prevent said ferrari from being either stolen or destroyed by other poos). Consequently, Indians prefer to show status by purchasing intangible status symbols - NFTs, MMORPG skins, membership to clubs, and subscriptions to various apps - as these things are not easily destroyed or stolen, cannot fall into disrepair, and do not require much space, if any, to "store". 

Contrast this with Arabia, where there are huge swathes of undeveloped and uninhabited land that is ripe for development and where Islam, which puts all sorts of prohibitions on individual conduct (especially when it comes to thievery), is the law of the land. If one has sufficient wealth, space, and confidence that whatever they build will be respected and left alone by others due to social norms and legal consequences, then it makes sense that he will choose to build opulent estates, flashy futuristic cities, and cutting-edge amenities and will purchase all sorts of expensive goods that can be enjoyed in/on and will enhance his enjoyment of said estates, cities, and infrastructure.

Curious to see whether anyone else can expand upon this or provide an alternate and/or complimentary hypothesis.

[Mason Hall-McCullough]

I'd say that "Saudi Luxury" is more attributable to the US, and that Saudi elites developed their tastes from globally exported US culture.



A tour of a cruise ship I recently watched immediately came to mind when reading the thread. This one has water slides that span several floors, a running track, far more restaurants and bars than necessary, so much over the top shit that you could just do on land instead of on a boat. Even the serious adult areas give me the impression that the intent of the design was to create a playground for adults. Disneyland probably has a similar atmosphere. It's garishly excessive, and I imagine the obese elderly mutts co-inhabiting the ship would spoil the experience anyway.

[Svevlad]

"Saudi Luxury" indeed seems to be a remnant of old "Western Luxury" that is now basically extinct. It strikes me as far "better" than Indian Luxury, if only out of ambition and "rule of cool"

[anthony]

"Saudi Luxury" indeed seems to be a remnant of old "Western Luxury" that is now basically extinct. It strikes me as far "better" than Indian Luxury, if only out of ambition and "rule of cool"

But there is nothing cool about it.

[Svevlad]

"Saudi Luxury" indeed seems to be a remnant of old "Western Luxury" that is now basically extinct. It strikes me as far "better" than Indian Luxury, if only out of ambition and "rule of cool"

But there is nothing cool about it.

There isn't - but to them, there is. It's very cargo-cultish in general, same as Indian, at it's source, though - so the balance is still 0.

[Elfenlied]

Two very distinctive forms of approaching to luxury: both of them born out of a need to compensate for a lack of status rather than a way of vaunting it, unlike a more "european" form of it. Note that both of these luxuries are irrespective of whether "physical" indians and saudis actually consume the products in each of the categories - These are conceptual races, rather than material ones. It's not even dependent on the product itself, rather, on the motivation to consume it. NFTs, in fact the same NFT, can be taken as both depending on the person - but there's clear tendencies for the motivation due to a product's own qualities: I will offer examples of products that showcase these tendencies, but I wouldn't want it to be a way to just attack people who like things. It's not on the ends, but in the means.

Indian Luxury: Trying to compensate by signalling belonging to a collective hivemind upon which status is projected. MMORPG skins as a very obvious example. NFTs often tend towards this as well. Exclusive clubs - the sex cult from which Hunter Biden was expelled is an indian luxury, despite no indians being a part of it. Monthly subscription apps as well, or "gimmick" credit cars like Magnesis - in fact Billy McFarland tried to build a carreer purely on appealing to indian luxury - and ended up in jail.  

Saudi Luxury: Trying to compensate by exaggerating signs of quality at an individual level until turning them grotesque. New Deus Ex games as an example I put on this very forum prior, as well as new Hitman games. Carbon fiber cars are a Saudi luxury. Beats by Dr Dre as well. Apple products have a tendency towards Saudi luxury. Holidays to a mexican beach or to South East Asia (whether for sex or not) as well.

Brown tendency towards cargo-cults. The only real difference I've observed in these two is that Indian luxury seems much more "white-focused" in terms of displays, rent-seeking, products desired. Whereas Saudis at the least have a conscious that isn't entirely built around resentment towards whites, and so have been able to craft their own decadent "muslim" luxury lifestyle. I think Mason-Hall McCullough is right that Saudi elites' tastes are essentially an adoption of American vanity that was imported over the past decades. Indians remain attempting to cope with their dominance by the British, and their choices of luxuries match it.