Status Anxiety: My take _not_ review

Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton

I recently read a large chunk of this book called Status Anxiety. It is written by a "modern" philosopher - by that I mean he writes what he observes. He does not necessarily have a view of his own. He occasionally explains the origin of certain thoughts or concepts by referring to the work of another writer.

The book is about the anxiety that arises in each of us due our position with respect to whoever we seem to see, care about or compete with. A mill worker in India will never feel anxious to be like Bill Gates; but his neighbour getting a nicer room in the chawl will cause a lot of anxiety.

By anxiety he talks about low self image, stress, inability to focus on other tasks etc.

Money and possessions are a source of anxiety.

Talent is a source of anxiety.

Most importantly he talks about attention, respect and love as being sources of anxiety. He talks about how people dote on their children. This is the perfect example of the case where there is no competition with the child (in most cases, anyway) and therefore we tolerate the child spitting, burping and doing the most ridiculous things and return love and care. We listen to every goo and gaa that comes from the child. We give it all the attention we can. If we don't we feel bad and guilty.

At the other extreme, assume you are in a party and there is a spill. The maid or cleaner will come, clean up and move on. If she is slow, people get annoyed, if she is quick, she is not even noticed. And if she is noticed, most people want her out of sight as soon as possible. It is not the salary she is paid that hurts her, it is not even her job, but that she is at best ignored and at worst wanted out of sight is what hurts her. It makes her feel utterly unwanted and unloved. A big change from the days of infancy.

As the society became meritocratic, the age old tradition of classes were looked down upon. The nouveau riche flaunted their wealth and power (like Orson Welles in the Long Hot Summer), the old money were even seen a negative light as being stuck up at best and genetically inferior due to inbreeding at worst. The politics of the capitalist society especially in America since 1776, the "dream" was sold to the public. Every man and woman was encouraged to have a dream and was urged to go out and attain it. People were told, if they had the talent they could go all the way to the top. This did really happen. There were numerous examples of people climbing the ladder - Bill Clinton and John Edwards are the modern day examples. These were the candles that were supposed to light the way for every one. The capitalist society and the notion of rewarding merit works increasingly on a smaller number of people. In a class of thirty you reward, one or two, not all thirty. Extending that analogy, the bulk of the population that does not get rewarded draws the immediate conclusion that they are not talented. Consequently their place is at the bottom of the society. This is the punishment end of the spectrum. The low end are now in a vicious cycle of being unable to get up and get out. And everytime they fail they are made to feel they deserve their place. In time, they just become bitter and stop trying. Achieving the dream has been oversold and left too many people disenchanted, and hopeless about the future.