My car just ranked my driving ability, and I sigh with a familiar anxiety. 65/100 going to the grocery store but it was 45/100 on the freeway. Sub-par. I'm failing.
My point is that we're being measured every day in new and surprising ways. Spending time and money striving for likes, friends, followers and approval. Striving for more money as a measurement of success and value. Book sales. Stars. Less weight, more collagen, a measure of correct living and moderation. A hipper kitchen that reflects our cool factor. The latest car. The correct political understanding. Even our humor is too often the judgmental and "subtle cruelties that pass for wit," as Dorothy Parker said.