Prestige vs. reputation

It’s educational to observe how people who are very verbal about maintaining their good reputation end up losing it. In many cases there is a mixup in terminology: reputation is often mistaken for prestige. In fact, many fear to lose prestige and not reputation at all.

While good reputation certainly comes with a certain degree of prestige, prestige is often accomplished in ways that don’t warrant a good reputation.

Examples are one hit wonders who got lucky once and make a living by milking that one thing, corporate psychopaths, ambitious bureaucrats whose motivation is exclusively prestige (name droppers, address droppers, ride droppers, title droppers, etc.), TV celebrities and of course politicians.

The masses are hypnotized by prestige which they pursue as an end, while honor (the foundation of a good reputation) is granted to somebody by a select few. This also explains how prestige without honor maybe maintained while prestige is meaningless for honorable people.