Link to Status anxiety: 2- Manifestations documentary
Documentary Description
In the second part of the programme, de Botton looks at how the
inequalities shown in the previous episode lead to the anxieties that
affect our everyday lives. Observing how people in low-paid jobs are
treated with less respect than company executives, he notes how status
determines the attention we are given, as are the clothes we wear, the
house we live in and the car we drive. The outward display of such
status symbols is clearly an indictor to the amount of money you have
and the amount of respect you therefore feel you should consequently be
accorded. Self-esteem is therefore very much dependent upon the
approval and judgement of others, and failure to stand out from our
peers often gives rise to feelings of anxiety and unhappiness. However,
does consumption and the acquiring of designer goods and status symbols
really give us the happiness we seek, or just debt and an increasing
need to maintain a lifestyle constantly beyond our reach? Again, de Botton takes a historical outlook on the matter, referencing
William James’ view on the desire for status being a search for love,
not just from a partner, but from the world. He compares the custom of
duelling to the modern equivalent of the celebrity lawsuit, seeking to
maintain ones respectability and status in the eyes of the world.
Returning to America, he compares Thomas Jefferson’s belief in the
perfectibility of every person into a self-made hero and how wealth and
happiness are attainable by everyone, to George Orwell’s belief in a
true socialist meritocracy, where the working class are more deserving
of rewards than the classes of privilege.
