Grovelling and Other Vices: The Sociology of Sycophancy by Alphons Silbermann
Grovelling receives its first sociological treatment in this work by the eminent German sociologist, Alphons Silbermann. According to Silbermann, grovelling, or arse-licking, is not a character trait but a model for action. It operates at the very centre of social mechanisms; and it is a process upon which any attempts to understand human arrangement must focus. Furthermore, from analyzing the arts of grovelling, sycophancy, duplicity and obsequiousness, we learn much about society, its ways of lies and flattery, cunning and deception, hypocrisy and baseness, false adulation, and deliberate self-degradation. The author explains the purpose of grovelling and what you can do to protect yourself from it, and the methods of taking and avoiding the groveller's role.