What shapes the language and direction of successful movements?

My father used to tell a story about the book-buying behaviour of the nouveau riche from a certain region of the world. I don't know how much of this is a reflection of reality, but here's how it goes: a super-rich trader comes into a bookshop to order books for his drawing room cum library. He looks around the shop and then orders the bookseller to give him 100 yards of green books, 80 yards of red books, 60 yards of yellow… so on and so forth. He needs to fill the space of the few metres-long mahogany shelves built in his palace with colours of his choice—trying to get urban, modern, and earn some prestige.