November 14th, 2007
Review-Status Anxiety
Status Anxiety, by Alain de Botton
I confess to being an Alain de Botton fan. His writing has an easy, conversational tone and even when presenting complex ideas he is always clear and easy to follow. Some critics have accused him of ‘dumbing down’ philosophy but surely making ideas accessible to a mass audience can only be a good thing.
Status Anxiety describes how an increase in material prosperity goes hand in hand with an increase in concern about our own importance, achievements, and income (status anxiety). We are obsessed with success and failure, anxious about our place in the social and economic pecking order and often feel that who we are and what we have is not enough. In the midst of abundance we feel deprived. Even the breakdown of the class system and increase in equality has only given us more people to envy. De Botton delves into our psychological motivations and defenses and offers wise advice on finding contentment in our competitive world.
This book offers valuable insight into the social pressures we all feel but don’t necessarily understand. Once we realize what lies behind so much of the need to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ it is easier to resist those pressures and to accept ourselves even if we don’t ‘measure up’ to society’s expectations.
This book is highly recommended.
