Caste Systems

Today, I'm thinking about caste systems and the ways in which people rank people. It seems like a human impulse, though whether it's natural or cultural, who knows. When old caste systems are swept away as barbaric or unjust, new ones seem to pop up.As a writer, I have my Amazon rank, which I check obsessively.I also have the number of twitter followers as compared to my fellow twitterers.Facebook keeps emailing me rankings of the most "trusted" or "attractive" or "sweet-smelling" of my peers. I'm never on these lists. Apparently, I'm among the untouchables in the world of Facebook.I have blog stats, which rank me among other bloggers.As a student, I had my class rank, my GPA, my SAT and GRE scores.I even have a "popularity rank" among film professionals on IMDB.com. For some reason, I'm up 53% this week. I haven't made a movie since 2000, so who knows what that's about.All of which makes me wonder. Why do we rank? What does it mean? Why this vertical array of humanity?