Doesn't this whole thing remind you of the old Dr. Seuss story about "Star-bellied Sneeches"?
For those unfamiliar, there were two types of "Sneeches", those that had stars on their bellies and those who didn't. Those that did believed themselves superior. Then, some shyster came to town with a contraption that could put stars on the Bellies of "ordinary" sneeches. Suddenly, everyone was the same. So then, the shyster showed them a "star-removing" contraption that "Star-bellied Sneeches" used to *remove* the stars to their bellies and then claimed that having "no stars" was superior. Soon everyone was adding and removing stars until no one could tell anyone else apart.
(Found the video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln3V0HgW4eM )