(298) Caille

You will complain about this proposal, but you will prefer it in the end: everyone should wear a uniform. The fact we have to walk around today with no idea as regards how we stand in rank relation to each other causes us stress—man desires to know where he stands as regards other men. We look around and we just see people who are all dressed in roughly the same way—aside from a few supermarket workers and the police (even nurses and doctors don’t have real uniforms anymore). You would complain at first, but after we introduced uniforms for everyone you would wonder how we ever managed without—and everyone will derive great satisfaction from the maintenance of the uniform.

You could look at a man and, at a glance, know that he was a Garage Mechanic, Grade 3 or Computer Programmer, Grade 1—and to be able to place a person that way would make you feel great relief. The world would seem so coherent to you—and I promise uniforms for all, right down to the most menial jobs. The self-employed could, perhaps, have a generic uniform—and the unemployed could all wear white overalls (and inducement to get off the dole, in fact—subtle persuasion by social shame).

It would also reduce envy, since there would be fewer opportunities to compete in the workplace over fancy clothes (which people, mainly women, do in an almost unconscious way). You could only play those games when not at work—the appropriate place for them; and, with uncertainty about everyone’s status reduced, everyone would feel less afraid and anxious. You would be surprised quite how calm you would feel every day. It would be interesting to see how people would treat each other, especially if the ranks were equivalents, as between the air force and the army, so that you could know exactly where you stood with someone—even someone from another occupation altogether. It would also be neater than today.