The keys to happiness are money, fame and status, regardless of what the romantics say

2 January 2010

Toby Young suffers from Status Anxiety

I also find it a bit rich when de Botton and his anti-capitalist comrades chastise us for being preoccupied with status. Are they really unaware that this criticism is a way of advertising their own superior social standing? For at least 200 years, Britain’s public schools have been teaching their pupils to avoid the conspicuous pursuit of fame and money for the simple reason that engaging in such activity is a low status indicator. Whenever I hear a liberal intellectual bemoaning the vulgarity of ‘celebrity culture’ and expressing contempt for anyone unworldly enough to be impressed by designer goods, I am reminded of a conversation I once had with a Scottish earl in which he condemned snobbery on the grounds that it was ‘common’.

Such paradoxical thinking was on full display in a recent newspaper feature entitled ‘The Enriched List’. The idea was to identify ways in which you could lead a full and meaningful life without being wealthy. One suggestion was to take up basket-weaving, but the argument for doing so was less than convincing: ‘According to fashionable sources, contemporary basket-weaving is the craft du jour.’ The notion that we shouldn’t be guided in our lifestyle choices by shallow notions of what’s ‘in’ and what’s ‘out’ because a more broadminded perspective is now ‘in’ is a little self-defeating. Either you slavishly follow the latest trend or you don’t. But it’s a bit much to look down your noses at people who do so on the grounds that it’s no longer trendy.

My friend’s main argument for why I should contribute to his book is that thinking about alternative sources of happiness is very au courant. His email continued: ‘The current recession, the bankers’ bonus row, the MPs’ expenses debate have all spurred questioning our society’s values and discussion of the desire for something better.’ No doubt that’s true, but if the yearning for more deep-rooted forms of satisfaction is linked to Britain’s faltering economy, won’t it disappear as soon as we start to recover? My advice to anyone thinking of jumping on this anti-capitalist bandwagon is to do so quickly because it will shortly grind to an abrupt halt.

Toby Young is associate editor of The Spectator.