Negative Privileges

The only luxury and at the same time the only props of the following plot are some deck chairs. There were about a third as many as passengers.

> After the assertion of exclusive powers of disposal of a subgroup over a generally coveted commodity, the hodgepodge of passengers acquired structure. Two classes had established themselves, possessors and non-possessors, positively and negatively privileged. If one compares these two new subgroups with the totality of passengers who had participated in the earlier order, it immediately becomes apparent that what was really original about the new order – at least in its first phase – was the establishment of negative privileges. One subgroup was denied access to a Commodity. The privileged subgroup, on the other hand, could use this good as needed, i.e. just as everyone could before. Assuming that their needs remained the same, they had not yet gained any advantage over the former entirety. The enviable thing about their situation was that they did not belong to the others. But further above all in the expandability of her position. It would require little imagination to predict the further course of events if the journey continued for a while under the same conditions.