You aren't anybody unless you have read this book"
Alain de Botton has made a career out of contemplating the dilemmas of everyday life with the aid of philosophy. His The Consolations of Philosophy was a self-help book for people who can't stand self-help books, taking the agonies of Neitzche and the outpourings of Schopanhauer and applying them to our financial troubles or lack of friends. De Botton does all this with a pleasant and reassuring style not lacking in the self-deprecatory humour that an Anthony Robbins or a Steve Covey couldn't even begin to understand.
His latest book is Status Anxiety, a diagnosis of the dirty soul of the postmodern west. Status Anxiety is that condition of the human psyche where we worry that we are not achieving the ideals of success laid down by our society; and as a result we fear that we will not be taken seriously. De Botton advances the thesis that this anxiety is a great way to be really unhappy; and that, sadly, much of our society is in its grip.
The book falls into two simple halves: "Causes" and "Solutions". Unfortunately, the "Causes" section is a great deal more interesting and incisive than the "Solutions" section. Among the causes of status anxiety, de Botton describes the modern preference for a market economy and a meritocratic society. These conditions leave open the question of one's status, which need to be discerned by performance in the world " unlike the old order of things whereby a person's birth determined their status. The old order at least had the advantage of limiting people's expectations of advancing their status; and people were arguably happier as a result. As he puts it, gnomically:
The price we have paid for expecting to be so much more than our ancestors is a perpetual anxiety that we are far from being all we might be. (p.63)
The rise of meritocracy (to which even ALP leader Mark Latham appeals " remember his "rungs of the ladder speech?) has meant that one's wealth and status are given a moral - or even spiritual " connotation. Hard work ought to be rewarded with success and respect; the logical inference is that success and respect are always the result of hard work, or at least harder work than others do. The more sinister corollary under this mentality is that poverty is seen to be the consequence of laziness and is marked with the stigma of shame. After all, if we believe that anyone can succeed given the chance, what are the poor doing? We see this gross and graceless moral system even creeping into Christianity in our city, where the gospel of prosperity and aspiration is preached " and believed " by thousands; and where Christians are just as prone as others to believe the ordering of society according to worldly indicators - education, postcode, car-make, fashion.
While many of the features of status anxiety arise because of social conditions particular to our time, de Botton points to a more basic cause: the universal human need for love from the external world. Our need for this love is a strong drive indeed:
Our "ego' or self-conception could be pictured as a leaking balloon, forever requiring the helium of external love to remain inflated and vulnerable to the smallest pinpricks of neglect. (p.16)
When we are given strong indications of the path to high regard from others, we will be motivated to pursue it.
The "Solutions" part of the book I found rather tepid. Among the suggested solutions are Philosophy, Art, Politics, Christianity, and Bohemia. In each of these, as is characteristic of his style, de Botton dabbles rather than giving a full account. The chapter on Christianity touches lightly on the virtues and values Christianity has pursued and on the architectural and cultural heritage that Christianity has handed down to Western Europe. He treats of Christianity as if there were no-one left still believing it. I felt like a ghost from the past reading this chapter.
What de Botton can't quite explain or even identify (although he tries) is the potent notion of grace. The gospel of grace speaks of a Lord who is the final judge and before whom grace is the only status that counts; and of a Lord who is ready to exalt the humble and cast down the mighty and arrogant. The song of teenage girl Mary introduces the ministry of Jesus in Luke's account as a reordering of the world's values along lines barely imaginable in human terms. I would hope the "Christianity" chapter of this book could be written in a far more convincing and appealing way by any thinking Christian. In fact I would like to challenge any Christian reader to consider how they might respond from within the framework of their faith to de Botton's diagnosis before reading his "Solutions" chapters. This might make an interesting and worthwhile diversion for a Bible Study group, perhaps.
However, despite its shortcomings, de Botton's book is a masterful description of contemporary existence. It asks the penetrating question of the way we live is it actually making us happy? The answer is far too often "no". Though we would never despise the remarkable improvements in the quality of life achieved over the last century, what is revealed here is that the human desire for more is always relative to what is expected as a norm.
Michael Jensen lectures in Church History and Theology at Moore Theological College in Sydney.
