Status Anxiety

By Alain de Botton

Botton is at his best when he writes about his direct experiences. Lately, he's been philosophizing more and visiting less. This is still a good book though.

Why do we feel so anxious about our status? If we can be happy living simply, then why do we try to achieve so much?

There are sights of a life well lived. There are a signs of a life gone wrong. You can live simply, but if you don't have money, then if things go wrong, you can be in trouble.

Botton has a good chapter on the Bohemians. They were intensely passionate about being counter culture. Yet that drive slammed them into a wall. They appeared to have no purpose other than to mock culture, so when mainstream culture stopped caring for them, they had to become more extreme.  Some Bohemians tried to start their own farm. They intended to spend lots of time reading and making art however they didn't know how to grow food, so things went bad fast.

And that is the challenge of living simply—much of what we take for granted—security, health care, food, building materials, only exists because of much effort from many people. We can  try to live simply, but unless we want short lives, we need these complexities.