Status Anxiety: Lovelessness by Alain de Botton

    “毕业于剑桥大学历史学系的英伦才子”、致力于普及哲学的TED知名演讲者、阿兰·德波顿的哲学力作

    “「焦虑」在现代社会无处不在。无论是富商巨贾，达官显贵，亦或是升斗小民，每个人的内心都潜藏着对自身身份的一种难言的焦虑。”

    “世界上并不是只有一种方式才能证明生活的成功，身份的焦虑如同所有欲望一样，只有尽力理解和探讨他才寻找到平衡价值追求与焦虑羞耻的最佳之道。”

内容干货

1.作者简介，本文概要

     作者简介：Born in 1969 to a wealthy Jewish business family and a father who spoke nine languages, author Alain de Botton inherited this high intelligence and graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in history and then studied philosophy at Harvard University. He is best known for his philosophical interpretations of everyday life and his accessible writings. He is also a literary critic, columnist, and TED speaker, and while others are popularizing science, he is dedicated to "philosophizing" and popularizing philosophy.

    Notable Works: Essays in Love, the Romantic Movement, the Art of Travel

    作品梗概：One of the sources of contemporary anxiety about identity is the desire for love. This love is more broadly defined on a social level as attention for others. Our lives are constantly in pursuit of this love of the world, even though people are ashamed to identify it, or even confuse this quest for identity with the quest for wealth. We naturally divide people into two categories, ‘somebodies’ and ‘nobodies’, and treat them differently according to the amount of attention they receive. But do we really gain love and dignity through this identity? If this is true, why would many somebodies still trap by anxiety and stress? Why would many nobodies live their life satisfied and still win respects from others?

 

2.单词词组，地道表达

    对于生活在世界上的每个人，我们都hunger for dignity and respect。 It is quite common to把人们分为“大人物”与“小人物”。然而这种划分是nonsensical的，我们把自己渴望成为的一类人捧上神坛，却肆意trample同我们一般有privation的人。我们的天性driving us to seek high status, espeically the money and the social hierarchy.不管通过什么means， 我们的目标总是相同的，即获得世界的爱。不过在这条 zealous 的追寻之路上， 你是否曾gaze 自己的来路，思索过，假如自己获得了所有的身份与地位，成为predominant的人，你是否仍然会变得avarise, 渴求着更多？永不满足，永远焦虑，看似拥有了所有，令人envious， 实际上却是最贫瘠，最一无所有的，我相信任何人都不想落下如此caustic和令人mocking的结局。

 

3. 散文佳句，沉浸赏析

     社会身份相关的爱与两性之间的爱有所不同，但却也有相同的感受。

    l There may be differences between romantic and status forms of love – the latter has no sexual dimension, it cannot end in marriage, those who offer it usually bear secondary motives – and yet those beloved in the status field will, just like romantic lovers, enjoy protection under the benevolent gaze of others

    沐浴在关怀之中，便如同坠入爱河，令人久久沉溺。 

    l As much as money, they seek the respect that stands to be derived from the process of gathering it.

    富足的人，究竟为何依旧孜孜以求地聚敛着财富？

 

4. 主旨哲思，流连赏玩

    追求不停，关注不止。

    “Few of us are determined aesthetes or sybarites, yet almost all of us hunger for dignity; and if a future society were to offer love as a reward for accumulating small plastic discs, then it would not be long before such worthless items too assumed a central place in our most zealous aspirations and anxieties.”

    “The benefits of high status are similarly seldom limited to wealth.”

    与其是说人们在追求财富，不如说是在追求其过程中获得的关注与尊重。   

    世界之爱，人皆拥之。

    “To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the advantages which we can propose to derive from it.”

    “Our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.”

    从籍籍无名的小人物，到名声天下的大人物，我们穷极一生都在追求者这种世界的爱。

       身份对我们是极为重要的，它是打开爱之宫的金钥匙。大人物们坐拥财富，他们在名利双收的同时仍然渴望着更多的关注与支持；小人物们默默无名，挣扎于现实的苦难之中，同样也渴望着他人的尊重。世人们皆渴望着社会的关注，渴望着这种世界之爱，视其为衡量成功与否的核心指标。然而，当我们站在世界的聚光灯之下，你是否会渴望更多呢？