Before becoming a musician, I worked as a face painter.

Sometimes dressed as a butterfly, sometimes wearing shiny red boots and pigtails, decked out in holographic ribbons.

I did it for roughly 10 years. I was pretty good at it. It paid well as a freelance gig, mostly company parties.

And being a face painter is like serving as an embedded spy in the Republic of childhood.

Kids speak freely around you, don't even register you're an adult. They're sweet, they're weird,

they're funny, they're mean. And even though they're pint-sized, they're already real

sensitive to social status and hierarchy.

I remember this one kid, let's call him Charlemagne, pulling ranked on another boy by explaining that his dad worked in a corner office.

And I kept painting, but it occurred to me that this kid would have no idea why a corner office was even desirable.

He hadn't spent any time in his sunless cubicle yet.

He just heard the boasted home and trotted it out here as evidence that Charlemagne Sr.

was higher up on the corporate ladder than this other kid, who was also waiting in line for me to paint a glitter Batman on his cheek.

I'm done. waiting in line for me to paint a glitter Batman on his cheek.

I'm Dessa. This is deeply human.

And we're talking about social status, prestige, influence, and dominance.

In our personal lives, and our work lives, in our societies at large,

why do we form social hierarchies?

We're born into the mini hierarchy of our homes, where parents are the de facto bosses. And as a little kid myself, I was very eager to level the family organizational chart, constantly campaigning my mom

for an equal vote in domestic policy decisions.

Let's all just argue our case and trust the best plans will rise to the top.

And I cannot tell you how much I hated her reply.

I'm your mother, not your friend.

...