Tag Archives: happiness

A Life Worth Living: Andy Cope

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This is the first in a regular series of interviews looking at the approach different people take to creating A Life Worth Living.  This interview is with Andy Cope, author of a number of books including The Art of Being Brilliant and The Art of Being a Brilliant Teacher.   Andy is currently studying for a PhD in “Happiness” and delivers workshops and seminars via his company The Art of Brilliance. Enjoy the interview.

Andy Cope

Andy Cope

1.  What prompted you to write your book “The Art of Being Brilliant” and who is it aimed at? What has been the response to your book?

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‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ is basically all the best bits from my PhD research. I’’ve been studying ‘happiness’ and ‘flourishing’ (basically, I’’ve been seeking out happy people and bottling their secrets) and some simple principles were crying out to be shared. I’’m delighted to say that the response has been brilliant. ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ has reached a global audience and I’m working on book 2

2. What led you to undertaking studies in positive psychology?

I studies ‘Psychology’ at Uni. and it was interesting, but always about ill people. I learned about disorders, anxiety and depression. And then I came across the relatively new field of ‘Positive Psychology’ which was pitched at the opposite end of the spectrum. And, bizarre as it sounds, we’d never really studied happy people. And that piqued my interest. I noticed that too many people were in a default whinge/moan/pessimistic mindset. Why is that? And wouldn’t it be cool to find people who were different? And find out what they were doing?

So I did!

3. You are working on a PhD in “Happiness” – what topic specifically is your PhD looking at?

I’m looking at what I call ‘flourishing’. In a nut shell, I’ve been studying people who are happy and upbeat and (and this is important) whom other people are noticing are more happy and upbeat. In short, those who shine and who impact positively on those around them

And my research is targeted at those who are working in the public sector. I thought this would be particularly challenging, in times of re-structuring, low morale and budget cuts. Yet, some people remain happy and upbeat!

4. If you could change the world in any way you wanted what 3 things would you change?

Just 1 thing. I’d change education. There aren’t enough words in this article that allow me to do justice to the changes I’d make. Suffice to say, I’d pretty much tear up the current model and start again. We’re preparing children for a world that no longer exists!

5.  Who is the most inspiring person you have ever met and why?

Crikey! Good question!

I’ve been fortunate to meet a good selection of awesome people. I’d better go for my colleague and co-author, the fabulous Mr Andy Whittaker (cos he’ll probably read this!). He’s the nicest bloke on the planet and has really inspired me by proving that when you play to your strengths, anything’s possible

6.  How do you spread your message of happiness?

We have a really cool workshop called ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’. Plus various books and CDs. But the best way to spread the message is to take it into schools and train kids to deliver it across their community

7.  Tell me about your 2%ers event?

A ‘2%er’ is my shorthand way of describing the people I’ve been studying. It isn’t actually scientifically correct but is merely meant to imply that happy, positive, upbeat people are a minority group. 2%ers are people who are significantly happier than average

And we have gatherings of 2%ers. Basically we cram 400 happy people into a room and deliver some workshops for them. It gives me a chance to try out some new material on a friendly audience

8. I believe we should all do something every day to make us feel proud. (Cue Heather Small) What are you most proud of?

My family. The biggest results I’ve had with ‘positive psychology’ have been at home

9. What has been you greatest life lesson to date?

The biggest discovery of my PhD (and the most obvious!) is that 2%ers actively and consciously choose to be positive. I describe this as common sense but not common practice. I also describe it as simple but not easy (there’s a very important difference!)

10. Tell me about your involvement with schools and why you choose to work with them?

We delivered ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ in businesses for a number of years before we twigged that teachers and children need these messages too! So we re-jigged the content and we now deliver what we call our ‘embedded model’, where we take a year group through the messages and task them with designing their own curriculum that they take across school (and the wider community). Young people get such a hard time in the press and this is an attempt to redress the balance by getting teenagers to inspire their communities.

Quite simply, the earlier you can embed positivity and happiness in your life, the better your life chances

And we choose to deliver in schools because it’s absolutely the right thing to do! In fact our business model is set up in such a way that we charge quite hefty fees to deliver in businesses and we use the surplus to subsidise our work in schools.

 

11.  Is it easier to teach happiness to young people or adults? In other words can you teach old dogs new happiness tricks?

Our’s is an incredibly simple message. Adults get it. And younger children (age 9 to 12) get it

Teenagers are more of an issue. Quite often, we find that teens are already indoctrinated into negative mind-sets and some of them can be very difficult to work with. Invariably, these habits have been learned from home. Sadly, if you’re a British teenager, it’s not cool to be your best self. We are working hard to change this culture in the schools that invite us in.

12. Who or what is the greatest source of happiness in your life?

My children

13. Which 3 books would you take to a desert island?

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Roal Dahl)

Success Intelligence (Robert Holden)

‘Spy Dog’ (by me…and I’d take this book along just to remind myself that I can write books)

14. Who is the happiest person you have ever met and what have you learned from him/her?

In 2005, I interviewed Britain’s happiest man. Not only did he put his happiness down to a conscious choice. He also made that choice after a terrible tragedy when many people would have given up on life. We hear so much about ‘post traumatic stress disorder’. This guy showed that adversity can make you stronger (which is called ‘post traumatic growth’, btw). You don’t have to dwell on bad stuff.

15. When was the last time you experienced an explosion of joy (controlled or otherwise)?

I was driving home from doing a talk. And the night sky was filled with stars. I pulled the car over, got out and gazed at the sky. I can’t never remember seeing so many stars! And that got me thinking that here am I, a flickering dot of life on a tiny rock in the solar system. How cool is that!

16. Can you remember the happiest moment of your life and what made you happy?

Sounds corny, but I reckon the happiest moment of my life was when my wife and newborn daughter came home from hospital. Sophie was premature so things were a bit dicey for a while. Getting my girls home was a huge relief and an immense source of happiness that has lasted 18 years.

17. Have you tried any of the Happiness Experiments? What was your experience?

We’re just recording a series where we experience a range of ‘happiness remedies’ and report back. So watch this space. We’re experimenting with meditation, getting drunk, being grateful, watching a funny film, walking in the countryside, doing random kindness, etc. It’s meant to be light-hearted reporting but with a serious message

18.  Do you have any Happiness Experiments of your own to recommend? 

I tend to give a ‘top tip’ that I found useful when re-training myself to be more positive. Wake up in the morning being really grateful that you haven’t got toothache. Genuinely appreciate it. It works really well on cold, dark winter mornings. Or, on a bigger scale, appreciate that your kidneys are working and your heart’s still beating. And get out of bed like you mean it! (I think this is a twist on the often-quoted ‘attitude of gratitude’)

19.  The aim of The Happiness Experiment blog is to show people ways to live a happier and more meaningful life.  What brings meaning to your life?

For me, meaning comes from having goals that connect with the world. So to continue to grow ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ and to get it embedded in the school curriculum, gives me a very strong sense of purpose and meaning. Because it means more and more young people will get to connect with being their best selves. That means I can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning and I have more energy than I’ve ever had in my life

20. If I were to ask you to think about “a life worth living”? What constitutes a life worth living for you?

One in which I feel loved. And one in which I feel I’m adding some value. I rather like this story from our book…

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 15th May 2013

Enjoy the simple pleasures in life

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Pleasure

Pleasure is wild and sweet. She likes purple flowers. She loves the sun and the wind and the night sky. She carries a silver bowl full of liquid moonlight.  She has a cat named Midnight with stars on his paws.

Many people mistrust Pleasure and even more misunderstand her. For a long time I could hardly stand to be in the same room with her. I went to sleep early to avoid her.  I thought she was a gossip and a flirt and she drank too much. In school we learned that she was dangerous and I was sure that she would distract me from my work.  I didn’t realise she could nurture me.

As I have changed, Pleasure has changed.  I have learned to value her friendship.

This delightful description comes from a gem of a book,  called The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler, which I recently discovered thanks to a recommendation by Brené Brown.  We often deny ourselves the small simple pleasures in life which could give us a quick happiness boost if we gave ourselves permission to have some fun on a regular basis.  This video clip by Gretchen Rubin is a great introduction to Happiness Experiment No 16: Find more ways to introduce small moments of pleasure in your life.

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 9th May 2013

 

 

 

 

 

Do animals experience happiness?

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As the owner of an irrepressibly happy red setter called Loulou, I have always been convinced that animals can both experience and spread happiness but I did not give the matter any further thought until I read this article on The Smile Epidemic blog.  It makes interesting reading and also reminded me of the importance of connection which is what Happiness Experiment No 15 is all about.  Have a read of the article and decide whether you agree.

Christian the lion

 

 

Do animals experience happiness?

We know that humans can experience happiness and most of us have been lucky enough to understand that feeling first hand. It is commonly understood that there are three processes to experience emotion:

  1. A physiological response to a certain stimulus
  2. An outward expression of emotion and
  3. An analysis of that emotion

Because this is our common scientific understanding of how one experiences emotion, we also gauge the experience of happiness by the same measure. This is where the debate comes in regarding an animals capability of experiencing emotion, and more specifically that of happiness.

There are research and test studies that demonstrate animals experience fear and mourning, so why not happiness too?
For instance, a graylag goose who has lost their partner demonstrates all the same symptoms of a young child in terms of experiencing grief, i.e: eyes sinking deep into their sockets, an overall drooping experience, literal head hanging, tears. Sea lion’s, dolphins, and elephants who’ve had to watch their children or partner being killed will cry and scream out for help, and will try to revive them afterward.

This similar process has been observed within different species in the moments before they have accepted that their friend, parent, child or spouse is deceased. It is after the realization that death has occurred, that the animals will move into the mourning process. According to John Bowlby (Developmental Psychologist), some animals will even take part in funeral rituals such as putting together shrines to pay tribute to the one they are missing, or burying the deceased animal (Ex. elephants, gorilla’s, wolves, and foxes).

Why do animals grieve and why do we see grief in different species of animals? It’s been suggested that grief reactions may allow for the reshuffling of status relationships or the filling the reproductive vacancy left by the deceased, or for fostering continuity of the group. Some theorize that perhaps mourning strengthens social bonds among the survivors who band together to pay their last respects. This may enhance group cohesion at a time when it’s likely to be weakened [Source: Psychology Today].

We also know that animals can experience fear, distress and pain. The most commonly observed instance of this is within our very own food industry. The raising of livestock to then utilize them as a source of food is a common environment in which animals are clearly experiencing fear, distress and pain throughout the process. So much, in fact, that the American Meat Institute (AMI) is implementing new procedures to render livestock brain dead before they are to be slaughtered to reduce the amount of distress and pain experienced. This reflects a rather humane view of our four-legged companions: that animals, like humans, can feel fear and pain. This is also obvious in the wild; after all, fear is a function of survival. The idea that animals can feel pain has also been proven through clinical tests, like teaching animals to fear their food supply through electric shocks, as Psychologist B.F. Skinner managed to do.

We understand and have observed animals experiencing emotions such as pain, fear, and grief; so with that in mind, it is likely that animals ought to be capable of experiencing happiness as well, right?. The main issue here comes in the distinction between fear and happiness.

Fear is an emotion that generally produces observable behavior. A field mouse will flee from the shadow of a hawk flying overhead, for example. Happiness, however, is much more subjective, and produces less distinctly discernable behavior. What’s more, there’s no reason for happiness to exist in the animal kingdom, since all necessary behavior is considered to serve as some form of survival mechanism.

But what, exactly is the problem? Anyone who’s been around a dog wagging its tail or a cat purring contentedly can attest that animals feel happiness. Not so fast, say detractors. They would contend that this concept is an example of anthropomorphizing. To put it simply, they say, animals aren’t people, so humans shouldn’t treat them as such.

Anthropomorphizing is the act of attributing human features or behaviours to that of animals, thereby often misinterpreting their reactions or behaviours for the emotion of happiness.

This may be true, however, one argument in support of animal happiness is the fact that animals appear to have neurological processes similar to that of humans. Laboratory drug trials using mice have shown that they respond to the same compounds that alleviate emotional instability like depression in humans [Source: Bekoff and Goodall]. What’s more, to test an antidepressant’s effectiveness, mice are actually made depressed through bullying from other mice. If a mouse can feel depressed, then is it out of the realm of possibility that it can feel happiness as well?

Happiness, from a strictly biological standpoint, is a form of pleasure. Why is pleasure so important biologically? We humans experience pleasure as a means of teaching us to repeat behaviors that will help ensure our survival and the survival of our species. Eating food can elicit feelings of contentment or other forms of pleasure by triggering the release of hormones like endorphins. So, humans learn to eat — which helps ensure survival — because it feels good. The same goes for ‘afternoon delight’ which helps ensures the survival of the species through reproduction.

Proponents of the animal happiness idea argue that this evolutionary mechanism should be present in any animal with a conscious mind [Source: Macmillan]. Since we have proven animals experience aversive emotions like fear; logic follows that they should also be able to experience pleasurable feelings like happiness.

Have you ever engaged with an animal, whether it be your pet, someone else’s, or an animal outdoors or in the wild? Have you witnessed their happiness, have you felt the warmth of the cuddles, the purring, the playfulness and seemingly happy nature of them?

So although we may not be able to prove that animals are experiencing happiness with strong scientific proof, there are some theories that support the argument that they do.

We happen to think that animals do experience genuine happiness and pleasure, and want to know what do you think? Do you believe that animals do in fact,  experience happiness?

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 8th May 2103

Happiness at any age: Why do we age and what we can do to avoid it?

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If we can be happy at any age is it worthwhile trying to avoid aging?  Is aging something we can simply fix? Aubrey de Grey makes an impassioned plea for ending the aging process. Watch his TED talk and decide if you agree with his provocative stance on aging.

Aubrey de Grey: A roadmap to end aging

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 6th May 2013

 

 

 

 

Happiness at any age: Older people are happier

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Want to live to a ripe old age?  Having a positive outlook on life maybe the key to doing just that. The article below from CBS News looks at how optimism can lead to longevity.  The TEDxWomen talk below by psychologist Laura Carstensen shows that not only does being optimistic make you live longer, but research shows that you also become happier and more content as you get older and are likely to have a more positive outlook on the world.  Living to an old age does not mean that your quality of life has to diminish, on the contrary it is likely to increase.  Enjoy the article and the video and let me know what you think.

 

Researchers discover optimism may lead to longevity

MONKEY BUSINESS IMAGES

 

(CBS News) The secret to a long life may be something as simple as a sunny disposition.

In a study published in the journal Aging on May 21, researchers surveyed people who were over the age of 95 and found that most of them had positive personality traits, making them upbeat and relaxed about life. That suggests personality traits such optimism could be part of the longevity genes mix, they said.

Want to live to 100? What experts recommend

“When I started working with centenarians, I thought we’d find that they survived so long in part because they were mean and ornery,” Dr. Nir Barzila, the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging Research, and director of Einstein’s Institute for Aging Research, said in the press release. “But when we assessed the personalities of these 243 centenarians, we found qualities that clearly reflect a positive attitude towards life. Most were outgoing, optimistic and easygoing. They considered laughter an important part of life and had a large social network. They expressed emotions openly rather than bottling them up.”

The study is part of Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Longevity Genes Project, which specifically looks at aging. Over 500 Ashkenazi Jews over the age of 95 along with 700 of their offspring have been involved in the project.

According to the researchers, approximately 53,000 people in the U.S. are over 100 years old, which accounts for 0.2 percent of the population. But, the number of people reaching 100 from America has increased 8 percent per year.

For this particular study, 243 Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews over the age of 95 were given a 98-point questionnaire that specifically looked at personality traits. Three-fourths of the group were women, and the average age was 97.6 years old. Since they were all the same ethnicity, it allowed researchers to compare results from a similar genetic pool.

What scientists found out was that many of the near-centenarians were optimistic, easygoing, liked to laughed and were outgoing than introverted. They also were more likely to express their emotions, rather than keeping it all inside.

Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University Medical Center, told HealthDay that the results about expressing how they felt were in line with several previous studies. One of Perls studies showed that those who were highly neurotic tended to dwell on things and internalize their stress.

“This can translate into increased risk for cardiovascular disease,” he said to HealthDay. “High extroversion may lead to a better ability to establish social support networks — which is very good for older people – and to be cognitively engaged.”

Perls suggested that activities like physical exercise, yoga, tai chi and laughing a lot could help relieve tension. Also, sleeping was shown to have some beneficial effect.

The good news is that if you aren’t exactly that ray of sunshine, you still have time to change. Barzilai said that some evidence shows that people can change their attitudes between the ages of 70 to 100, and it isn’t exactly know if the subjects were always optimistic their entire lives.

“Nevertheless, our findings suggest that centenarians share particular personality traits and that genetically-based aspects of personality may play an important role in achieving both good health and exceptional longevity,” he said in the press release.

Article originally published in CBS News on 30th May 2012

“When we recognize that we don’t have all the time in the world, we see our priorities most clearly.” Laura Carstensen

 

Laura Carstensen – TEDx Women talk

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 4th May 2013

 

Happiness at any age: 91 year old water skier

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Happiness is not just for the young – you can be happy and live a fulfilled life at any age.  If you have a passion and devote time and energy to pursuing something you love you can be happy at any age.  Edith McAlllister is a wonderful example of someone who is not prepared to let her age get in the way of following her passion.  She is an inspiration.  Enjoy the video.

 

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 2nd May 2013

What can Anna Karenina teach us about happy families?

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“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Leo Tolstoy

Jude Law's looks had to be disguised for the role of Karenin, while his costume was inspired by Tsar Alexander II

Keira Knightley and Jude Law in Anna Karenina

Positive Psychology and the Anna Karenina Principle

Does the Anna Karenina Principle apply to people’s well-being?

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy’s well-known opening to Anna Karenina is thought by some to apply not only to families but also more broadly. It has even given rise to a rule dubbed the Anna Karenina Principle*, which holds that it is possible to fail in many ways but to succeed in only one way, by avoiding each of the routes to failure.

An example was provided by Jared Diamond (1997) in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel. He discussed why so few animal species have been domesticated. Unless an animal is easy to feed, unless it grows rapidly, unless it breeds readily in captivity, unless it has a benign temperament, unless it does not run away when frightened, and unless it has a stable social hierarchy, domestication is not going to happen. Think horses versus zebras.

 

Centuries ago, Aristotle proposed a similar idea in The Nichomachean Ethics: ”For men are good in but one way, but bad in many.”

And much more recently, psychologist Roy Baumeister and his colleagues (2001) concluded that “bad is stronger than good,” meaning that bad emotions, bad parents, and bad feedback have more impact than their good counterparts.

The Anna Karenina Principle implies that what is good is more elusive than what is bad. What is good reflects a perfect storm of contributors, and the absence of only one of these contributors precludes what is positive, desirable, or worthy.

If we apply this principle to the well-being of people, the conclusion is discouraging. Threats abound to happiness and life satisfaction, and only one of these needs to be present to bring us down. In contrast, doing well can only occur in special circumstances.

So, do we have another criticism of positive psychology? Is the scientific study of what makes life worth living the study of the fragile and the fleeting among the fortunate and the few?

I think not. Calling a notion a principle need not make it so. I prefer to regard the Anna Karenina Principle as a hypothesis to be tested. While it may hold in some cases, it likely does not hold in all or indeed most cases. If it did, then the factors that enable happiness (well-being) would – necessarily – be necessary ones, and that flies in the face of what the evidence actually shows. Conversely, the factors that make happiness difficult to attain would – again necessarily – be damaging and insurmountable in all cases. That too flies in the face of what the evidence actually shows.

If positive psychology, not to mention common sense, teaches us anything, it is that all of us are a mixture of strengths and weaknesses. No one has it all, and no one lacks it all, except of course the boys who want to date our teenage daughters. And our daughters would beg to differ.

We know that there are numerous contributors to happiness but that they rarely if ever exist at the same time for the same person. Nevertheless, most people are happy (Diener & Diener, 1996).

We know that Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, and Steven Jobs, among many other well-known folks, all had weaknesses and flaws, yet each lived a life worth living and indeed a life that is widely acclaimed.

We know that most people are resilient. Despite experience with potentially-traumatic events, most do well in their wake (Bonanno, 2004).

And by the way, although this is a topic for another essay, I doubt that the Anna Karenina Principle even applies to families. Happy families exist, as even Tolstoy would acknowledge, but they are wonderfully diverse.

*Thanks to Wikipedia for background on the Anna Karenina Principle.

Article originally published on February 27, 2012 by the late Christopher Peterson, Ph.D. in The Good Life

References

Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323-370.

Bonanno, G. A. (2004). Loss, trauma, and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events? American Psychologist, 59, 20-28.

Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: Norton.

Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are happy. Psychological Science, 7, 181-185.

Anna Karenina – Official Trailer (2012)

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 29th October 2012

 

 

What can Bohemians teach us about happiness?: Status Anxiety – Part 10

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In Part 10 of Status Anxiety, Alain de Botton looks at the history of Bohemia and what it can teach us about how best to live our lives.

From the start of the 19th century onwards, a new group of people began to be noticed in the West. They often dressed simply, they didn’t much care about money or convention and they came to be described as Bohemian. There have been all kinds of Bohemian movements over the last 200 years: the Romantics, the Surrealists, Dadaists, the Hippies the Punks and the Naturists. These disparate groups were united by one thread which is the decision to stand outside the Bourgeois mainstream and to live for a different set of values.  Bohemians pose an important question for all of us: who are we going to get to judge us?  Whose opinions should we give weight to?  We can learn from the Bohemians that status is available from a variety of sources, above all from our friends. Our choice of audience can be our own.

The Bloomsbury Group started an experiment in living in the 1920s and 30s whose affects we are all still feeling today.  Being a Bohemian isn’t about having a certain job, income or house, it is about a  way of looking at the world.  In the words of the childrens’ writer Arthur Ransome “Bohemia isn’t a place, it is a state of mind”. What that state of mind boils down to is a spirit of independence and freedom and the commitment to live your life by your own values.  The Bloomsbury Group gave themselves a sense of validation by breaking the rules of their time.  Many of the freedoms which we now take for granted (to talk to whom we like, to have relationships with whom we like) were established by “Bohemia”.  The disadvantage of Bohemia, de Botton argues is that it can spiral off in to wilful eccentricity.  Take a look at the video to see him taking a lobster for a walk!

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 28th June 2012

 

Happiness lessons from Karl Marx and John Ruskin: Status Anxiety – Part 9

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In Part 9 of Status Anxiety, Alain de Botton looks at how great thinkers and activists have been able to alter our values in society and to change our perception of status.

Who has high status today?  Who do we all look up to?  Who do the newspapers favour with respectable profiles? Rich people.  People who, through their own efforts and merit, have been successful in business, entertainment and the arts. People who make no secret of their achievements. This can seem shallow and unfair, de Botton argues, but it is made all the worse because we often assume that nothing can be done to alter the ideals of our society.  We tend to think that it is natural that certain groups have high status while others are marginalised. In fact it is not inevitable at all, it is possible to imagine a world in which their has been a radical redistribution of respect.

Karl Marx

The newspapers we buy contain a miriad of subtle and insidious messages about who in the world matters and who doesn’t. Karl Marx first brilliantly analysed the way that our values are being shaped without us realising it and he coined the word to describe this process as “ideology”.  He defined an “ideological” statement as one that sells itself as being naturally true when in fact it is made up to uphold vested interests. Marx thought we are bombarded by such statements all of the time. Acording to Marx, the ruling ideas of every age are always the ideas of the ruling class.

The sociologist Max Weber has said that the ritual of buying the Sunday newspapers has now replaced going to church. He contests that it is now the media which is the main source of ideology rather than priests in pulpits who used to be the main source of ideology.  De Botton argues that reading the papers can leave us feeling dispirited as we are being subtly rebuked for all the ways in which our lives do not conform to the dominant status ideals, all the ways our careers aren’t as stellar, our house aren’t as fashionable and our social diaries aren’t as packed as they might be. We may end up feeling as guilty about our failings as if we had spent the morning being berated by a priest.  Marx argued that ideological ideas are phantoms formed in the human brain which keep prisoners in their cells without the need for bars.

Alain de Botton evaluates the teachings of John Ruskin who fought a passionate campaign to raise the status and conditions of the British working class. He hated the values of his Victorian contemporaries and their obsession with wealth.  He described them as the most wealth obsessed people who have ever existed on this earth. He argued that the ruling goddess of the age was the goddess of “getting on”.  Ruskin demanded free education, decent housing and access to green spaces for everyone.  He challenged the central idea of his age that there was something admirable about being rich. Ruskin too was desperate to be wealthy but he had a very different idea of wealth in mind.  What he wanted was not money, he wanted kindness, intelligence, sensitivity, godliness – a set of virtues which he referred to simply as “life” There is no true wealth but life he wrote.  ”That country is wealthiest” he argues, “which nourishes the greatest number of happy and noble human beings.  Most of the people commonly considered as wealthy are in truth no wealthier than the locks on their strong boxes”  Ruskin made a difference by setting in trend many of the arguments which were to lead to the creation of the Welfare State. He remains an inspiring example of how by making a lot of noise and by acting politically someone can change the values of his world.  Gandhi said that John Ruskin had been the single greatest influence in his life.

Alain de Botton goes on to look at how changes in society’s values have allowed progress for people to whom this would have been previously been denied.

The political response to status, he argues, has been to insist that our contemporary status ideals are not inevitable but are man-made and so they can be changed.  He looks at people who have chosen to live by different ideals.  Watch the video and see what conclusion he comes to.

 

Posted by Shona Lockhart on 28th June 2012