Achieving status
At 35 years old, Alain de Botton had already written at least six books before his 2004,
Status Anxiety (303 pages). De Botton defines status as standing in society. And the anxiety associated with it involves a curious equation where what people think of us equals how we think of ourselves — other people’s attitude towards us translates into our own self-concept. Do we now deal with a society where perception is reality?
While modern times seem to extend high status to financial achievement and the possession of its symbols, this is not the case in other times and cultures.
Sparta of 400 BC accorded high status to military achievement and fighting prowess. Rome of 1500’s respected bishops while China in the Cultural Revolution of the ’60s elevated the peasant a higher status over the intellectual. Those in power determine who will be “somebody’s” with the rest being “nobody’s.” Status can thus be promulgated by the powers that be. In an egalitarian society, this role may belong to media.
De Botton recruits various authorities to make his case.
From Adam Smith (of the Wealth of Nations and its Invisible Hand) comes the interesting observation that self esteem is the quotient of success divided by one’s pretensions. The way to high status and self-esteem then was a simple mathematical formula of achieving a lot of success (the numerator) or reducing pretensions (the denominator). Someone pursuing only literary excellence will not be disappointed then when someone else achieves a breakthrough in physics, an area he is not seeking to compete in.
Status anxiety declines when we give up our illusions.
De Botton offers interesting morsels, like the etymology of “snob.” It comes from a Latin notation by authorities in Oxford and Cambridge “sine nobilitate” — without nobility, or aristocratic roots. “Snob” then started as a reference to a “nobody.”
By some quirk of usage, the notation shifted to refer not to the one being evaluated but to the one evaluating. Thus snob has come to stand for the dispenser of status who is himself safely ensconced in his self-esteem.
The roots of status anxiety coincide with the rise of the democratic ethic that demolished the aristocracy of the old world where social status is determined from birth with a painstakingly defined hierarchy of titles. How can a peasant experience anxiety over his lot when he does not envy or hope to equal the aristocrat, wishing only for his benign attention? But with the promotion of equality and a meritocracy encouraged by the establishment of public schools, the way was open for even those with poor beginnings to achieve high status with later acquisition of knowledge and wealth.
Status anxiety is introduced when, in spite of all the opportunities extended to all, one still fails to “make it.” De Botton points out, “To the injury of poverty, a meritocratic system now added the insult of shame.”
Lack of status then is no longer attributed to mere bad luck of birth but to a lack of ability and effort. But with so many “dependencies” (or variables) of the availability of talent and its marketability for an entertainer or writer or an employer’s rating of performance or the change in technology, the anxiety only builds up. But is status anxiety a trap that can be escaped? The book offers some remedies from continuous striving. There is religion or political activism to change the status quo. There is too a bohemian disregard for the symbols of status emulated by Thoreau. Nonchalance has always been the refuge of those who refuse to strive.
This is not a “how to” book to deal with status anxiety. It is an interesting romp through social history. This is a quest not for sexual love but the good opinion of others, the respect and dignity that people want in life. Should the high regard of others be tied up with what we do or who we are — or is there no difference between the two?
This author has also written two other books equally as delightful, Consolations of Philosophy and The Art of Travel. In one interview, author Alain de Botton bewails his not so easy classification in the proper section in the bookstore with these two books alone, whether philosophy or travel.
It is best to forget categories when reading De Botton. His essays (or attempts) are always worth getting into. Reading him is now accorded a high literary status.
Nonchalance has always been the refuge of those who refuse to strive.