I was inspired to put this one on my wish list from the now-defunct “We, Like Sheep” and was happy to get it from my mother as part of our family “draw-names-so-that-we-don’t-all-have-to-buy each-other-crap-we-don’t-want-or-need -gift-exchange” (which continues to experience great resistance in my clan despite the obvious wisdom of the idea).

Its a curious and sometimes charming little philosophy book, but I can’t decide whether it is really any good, just a restatement of the obvious for Gen X or Y, or what. Regardless, I didn’t find it as satisfying as one might hope.

The purpose of the book is to identify and name one of the primary causes of unhappiness in our culture, our obsession with our perceived (or actual) status relative to others. Towards this end, Botton divides his book into two (obvious) parts: causes of unhappiness, and potential solutions. Following Botton’s lead (his prose tends to reveal what I suspect are his initial outline-format sketches at times):

Causes

  1. Lovelessness
  2. Expectation
  3. Meritocracy
  4. Snobbery
  5. Dependence

Solutions

  1. Philosophy
  2. Art
  3. Politics
  4. Religion
  5. Bohemia

The “Causes” section is a nice examination of the issue of status seen through the five lenses he supplies, and is kind of a cherry-picking trip through Western history of ideas in a mile-wide-and-an-inch-deep format (something obviously suitable for a public TV adaptation).  I was particularly struck by the Meritocracy section, which lays bare the fundamental flaws of American ideals of a merit-based economy (viz. in a society whose rewards are distributed based on merit, if one does not possess those rewards, one must not have merited them, or more simply put, the poor are poor because they deserve to be so).  Throughout the causes section he identifies the powerful meta narratives that subtly inform much of our thinking on these issues, and I was struck by how pernicious and invisible some of these assumptions can be.

The “Solutions” section essentially offers an alternative set of narratives to which one can subscribe to counter the pernicious effects of the “Problems” section.  What I find less satisfying is that Botton’s point seems to be 1) the counter-narratives are as arbitrary and “unreal” as those they are opposing, and 2) the comfort they provide are essentially coping strategies.  I suppose what seems unsatisfying to me here is that Botton doesn’t suggest ways to put the counter-narratives into practice, although obviously these are such expansive and important topics that such instruction would be vacuous in such a short work.  His “Religion” section is also exclusively focused on Christianity, and perhaps a broader view would provide some extra “heft” to his Solutions.

I suppose that’s my problem with this book — the Problems seem more substantial and powerful than the Solutions, at least as he has presented them.  Perhaps this is due to the situations in which I was reading this book (travel), and an uninterrupted reading might give me a different perspective.

Regardless, worth reading.

Of course, the larger question of such a book is how it applies to one’s own life.  I tend to avoid self-analysis here, but perhaps worth reflecting on in written form.