Alain de Botton's own philosophy: Status Anxiety

A had heard of The Consolations of Philosophy from a few friends, but it seemed too introductory to be of interest. My Dad (A man quite interested in introductions and dot points) showed me the six-part TV series Philosophy: A guide to Happiness, which I did watch and found fairly interesting. Alain de Botton's take on philosophy is nice and accessible, allowing some of these thinkers to be introduced to those who may not usually take any interest in philosophy.

Where episodes concerned thinkers I knew more about (e.g. Nietzsche) however, I couldn't help but feel that aspects of their philosophy was being misinterpreted (or at least misrepresented). I'm not arrogant enough to think that I know more about these thinkers than de Botton, however it seems that in simplifying an idea (whose beauty may lie in its innate complexity), something may be lost - particularly the ideas of someone like Nietzsche - wasn't it a misrepresentation of his ideas that was used to promote fascism?. So whilst entertaining, the shows are about as interesting philosophically as a certain book-come-movie (about anagrams) is interesting mathematically.

However! Although, for an introduction to philosophy I would recommend Solomon, I was interested to see how rigorous Alain de Botton's own philosophy was - hence my purchase and subsequent reading of Status Anxiety. I had really hoped a lot from this book, as I believe the concept of status anxiety is important to the philosophical ideas concerning the individual and identity. For example, to create a sense of self, we associate many ideas with who we are and reject many others, which may or may not be true of ourselves. We associate ourselves with certain dreams, however these dreams are sometimes more associated with societal expectations or associations between happiness and the success of others: i.e. status anxiety - this is what I was hoping for anyway.

Unfortunately, the exploration is somewhat banal, lacking depth and originality. This is not to say I did not somewhat enjoy it - I just don't consider it to be a philosophical work, which is perhaps not the intention. Perhaps de Botton's main concern is with pop-society and issues like consumerism, in which case this book might be better considered alongside Affluenza, than The Gay Science. Some history to modern thoughts is given, and then philosphical anecdotes are used to guide the reading.

My main concern with Status Anxiety is this: Status anxiety is equated with the pursuit of material wealth. Especially today, status can be understood in many more forms. I think of myself, and how much of my dedication to obtaining a PhD is tied to my desire to be seen as intelligent. Think of people who believe "to travel" means "to be somebody" (interestingly, travel is presented as something which might assuage status anxiety). Consider people with little interesting in writing who feel they "must write a book", men who'd rather be seen with a pretty wife than one that makes them happy and that they are faithful to. This is perhaps a more important failure of the book than what is focused on by the philosophically inclined.

Status anxiety, in my opinion, is that complex of external influence and internal projection which leaves us wanting. It is where we orient ourselves towards achievements and experiences for reasons other than what they provide in of themselves. Status anxiety can be considered alongside that existential yearning to be someone of significance as we are faced with an indifferent and infinite universe.