And the constant pursuit of the economic and military advantage and superiority which scientific invention and technology confer is an essential component of a world-view that changes the realities on the ground.
While we wait for the spirit of the children's adventure story to seep back into modern society, those of us who grew up on Malcolm Saville's books will remain convinced of his superiority, no matter what Enid Blyton fans say.
Passes were misplaced or dropped, runners were not where ball-carriers expected them to be, a few lineouts malfunctioned and it was only in the scrum, invariably a source of succour against Australia, where they enjoyed manifest superiority, awarded seven free-kicks or penalties to none.
Combined with the development of shipping transportation, the west became intrepid explorers of the world, developed a world-view of racial superiority, which led it to achieve military and economic conquests that resulted in transatlantic slavery and colonialism.
In Russia, too, gay-bashing is a quasi-official policy, a mark of claimed superiority over the west.
This change doesn't necessarily reach everybody, which is why there are young Conservatives and Ukippers and Kardashians in the world, all utterly convinced of their own utter superiority over everyone else.
"When everybody is somebody, nobody is anybody"; and the popularity of "positional goods" - acquired not for their utility but to reflect status - shows how attractive demonstrations of social superiority can be.
The only superiority of neoliberalism lies in the power of the interests that sustain it.
This is used to show their superiority to western medicines, which they say are made from chemicals and so can be harmful, but the claim is also used to suggest that there are no dangers involved in taking them.
Rivals in other agencies sensed an uncollegiate superiority.
Was she suggesting that Denis was perhaps using her white characters to demonstrate the moral superiority of the whites over the "savage" blacks in Africa in a situation of crisis?
