Most people feel a need to belong. Most people crave the approval of their peers. Many feel a need to climb to the top of their social group, to become leaders and receive praise and adulation. To feel superior. These are basic human traits that are not necessarily bad in themselves. They spur some people to improve themselves through hard work and dedication. Unfortunately the desire is so strong and the road so tough that some cross the line into fantasy and deception.
The pretense of superiority by birth or association is widely adopted by those who want to skip to the front of the queue without doing the necessary work. The idea that you automatically become superior by being born into a certain family or group, or simply by associating with a certain group, leads directly to elitism and racism. A variation on that theme is the idea that one can climb the ladder by moving to a new community where you can lie about your past and, hopefully, your fantasy will take root because nobody knows who you are or what your previous social status might have been. And as we have seen recently (late 2020, to be specific), some people don’t give a damn about context and simply lie and cheat to build their fantasy world, no matter how transparent their deception might be. They can be so determined to make this work that it becomes an alternate reality that has to be maintained through a growing clutter of fabrication. The mass of lies eventually becomes a grotesque facade that anyone with a modicum of common sense can see straight through. The outcome is never good.
True happiness can only come to those who are true to themselves.