Alain de Botton: Status Anxiety

This doc is eye-opening: [VIDEO] (although it's over 2 hours and I fell asleep the first time I watched it). but TL;DW: People are always looking for status, because status means others acknowledge and praise them. And today's celebrity culture means being famous is seemingly a quick way to gain status. With a better community you'd have friends who like you and acknowledge you because they got to know you and your character.

Luxury goods are status symbols, we buy them because we crave status because deep down we crave recognition from others in society. So I wonder if urbanization/the trend towards more loneliness is the problem. If you have a tightly-knit community, you'd have people who appreciate you because of your character, sense of humor or good company; not because you drive a fancy car. And nowadays we don't really have real communities anymore, just polarization through the Internet, where people try to feel better about themselves by putting down others. This (2+ hours) documentary about status is quite eye opening: [VIDEO]

If you found this article interesting, I can highly recommend the book (and documentary) "Status Anxiety", by modern philosopher Alain de Botton. The video has a couple of gems, such as the comparisson between an english country-side vicar, and an american TV preacher. [VIDEO]

Agreed. I also really enjoyed Status Anxiety. For those who want to condense the reading experience, here is a 2.5 hr documentary version [VIDEO] .

May I suggest you watch Alain de Botton's Status Anxiety next time? Might hit two birds with one stone. [VIDEO]

Meritocracy is an interesting "religion", which we unconsciously believe in, and one can probably argue is the basis of the Republican ideology. "You're poor? That must mean you're lazy!" I find Alain de Botton's essays enlightening, here's a 2+ hour documentary about it: [VIDEO] , and a 4 minute summary: [LINK]

Hah, just like in that Black Mirror episode, where the main character avoids interacting with the waiter with a 3.x rating for fear of being judged by others as someone of lower status (score). Alain de Botton has an illuminating documentary about status (2h30m version: [VIDEO] , 5m version: [LINK] )

Well, the US is a fine example of your realization. People like to preach "You just need work hard and you'll be successful.". If you believe that, then on the flip side you'd have to believe, "Those poor people are poor because they're lazy.". To me that's why there's a lot of people screaming and yelling about "Handouts for the poor!". A good video about it: [LINK] , or even a longer documentary: [VIDEO]