Anne,

Contempt is a brutal emotion. I'm a social scientist and, as best as my field has been able to tell, the purpose of contempt (at the societal level) seems to be to enforce hierarchy.

But that's the exact problem you just underlined. By enforcing hierarchy you're also condoning it, so whatever rules you use to enforce your right to look down become the rules that you play by if your goal is to move up.

J