In this blog post, we explore the causes of the social status anxiety that shakes me and its solutions through Alain de Botton’s ‘Status Anxiety’.

Motivation for Reading Status Anxiety

I read this book when I transitioned from student life into society, moving from the consumer class to the producer class. I encountered it at a time when I needed to become financially independent, design my own life, and strive for happiness. Like me, those preparing for a new start as fresh graduates were excited by the bright side of working life, filled with the hopeful dream that anything was possible if you set your mind to it. Yet, like someone about to venture into uncharted territory, I also carried a vague sense of unease. This anxiety stemmed from a society where the critical factor of ‘money’ lurked nearby, and from the unprecedented competition unfolding there. The thought that enduring this competition would bring entirely new stresses and agonies unsettled me. Amidst this, I recalled a book that had once been a bestseller, Status Anxiety. I had read it casually back then, but upon revisiting it recently, I found myself deeply resonating with the diverse elements of anxiety and the solutions it offered – things I hadn’t noticed before. Through this book, I wanted to crystallize the vague sense of unease I felt and organize potential solutions into my own logical framework.

Causes of Anxiety

This book analyzes the diverse causes of anxiety felt by modern people and presents solutions from multiple perspectives. Like in his other book, Essays in Love, author Alain de Botton adopts a direct approach, examining each point one by one rather than using metaphorical or roundabout language in his narrative. This approach made it easy for me to understand, as I don’t care for ambiguous problems. The book begins by defining ‘status’ as a prerequisite for anxiety and the anxiety it causes. It then extracts causes and solutions from various books the author has read, presenting them and formulating them into propositions through his own logic. The book is structured so that readers can take the parts they resonate with and move past the parts they find difficult to relate to by thinking, ‘Ah, that’s a possible way of thinking about it.’ Therefore, I believe that to effectively absorb this book’s message, one must first analyze the specific sources of anxiety they are experiencing.
The part of the book that caught my attention was ‘anxiety stemming from expectations of equality’. The book illustrates this with a pictogram depicting five people of the same height, explaining that if one person is taller, the other four will feel relative dissatisfaction and jealousy. People set friends or family members similar to themselves as reference groups for happiness, and if they fall short, they experience significant anxiety. Particularly, people expect equal treatment within that group; the relative deprivation felt when that expectation is betrayed is mentioned as one of the main factors causing personal anxiety.
One common source of anxiety is ‘uncertainty’ about the future. The book cites examples like capricious talent, luck, employers and their interests, and the global economy—factors difficult to overcome through individual effort alone. While anxiety stemming from expectations of equality is an internal factor individuals can address, such uncertainty represents an external anxiety beyond personal control. People can feel betrayed by talents they once believed in at any moment, or feel jealous when a luckier colleague gets promoted. They might also become victims of a company’s new policies following a sudden global economic downturn. These external factors, occurring regardless of personal effort, become sources of anxiety, manifesting as the fear that no matter how hard we work, we might not reap the rewards of our labor.

Ways to Address Anxiety

While reading this book, I sought my own solutions to anxiety. First, I found hints in the book’s philosophy and overcoming weaknesses sections for addressing anxiety stemming from expectations of equality. The approach involves establishing clear value judgments based on one’s own distinct philosophy to mitigate the causes of anxiety. The most crippling anxiety felt when expectations of equality are betrayed stems from the gaze of others. The fear of being seen as inferior arises from the worry that others might perceive you that way. Therefore, when determining your own worth, you should not rely solely on others’ opinions but also consider your own value judgments. Of course, this requires a certain degree of audacity and confidence, and developing the skills to back this up is also essential. However, since maintaining this self-assessment isn’t always easy in social life, an attitude of cleanly acknowledging and accepting outcomes is also necessary.
Secondly, to resolve anxiety stemming from uncertainty about the future, I considered utilizing the ‘art’ suggested in the book. The author quotes Matthew Arnold, describing art as ‘a criticism of life’ and explaining artistic works as ‘the result of the process of understanding life’. Appreciating and feeling art provides a perspective that allows for a truer understanding of the world, thereby laying the groundwork to alleviate the anxieties felt in life.
However, this does not simply mean appreciating artworks or music. It is not a universally accessible solution for everyone in terms of accessibility and cost. Therefore, we need to interpret the scope of art broadly. If we interpret art as ‘activities that provide a perspective for understanding life,’ then personal hobbies can also be seen as a form of art. For example, rock climbing, which I enjoy, is an activity that allows me to experience the process of overcoming difficult hardships and achieving a goal. This process resembles overcoming the hardships encountered in life.