From the Private First Class who knows his place (above a Private but below a Lance Corporal) to the classification of the natural world (Species Genus Family Order ) we introduce hierarchies pecking orders & ranks to every aspect of our lives from society & religion to leisure & the law establishing priorities & bringing order to our world This miscellany of the various hierarchies that govern our existence ranges from the prosaically earthbound in the form of roads & freeways to the esoterically celestial in the form of angels seraphim cherubims archangels & so on Who is more senior in a Chinese triad a White Paper Fan or a Red Pole? What trumps a Straight Flush in poker? How many ranks are there between a Detective & a Colonel in the American police? What's the next step up from the Court of Appeal? What is a Royal Peculiar & where does it stand in the hierarchy of the British church? Which sea states lie between Calm & Phenomenal? In a Roman legion how many men made up a Cohort & how many Cohorts a Legion? What is the hierarchy in the US government? Knowing where something
- or someone
- stands in the order of things helps us quite literally to put it into context