心理学类纪录片，Channel 4 频道 2004 年出品。
Status_Anxiety_cover0.jpg
暂无
中文片名 ：身份的焦虑
中文系列名：
英文片名 ：Status Anxiety
英文系列名：
电视台 ：Channel 4
地区 ：英国
语言 ：英语
时长 ：约 48 分钟
版本 ：TV
发行时间 ：2004
本片为《身份的焦虑》一书的作者阿兰·德波顿所主持的同名纪录片。在《身份的焦虑》中，阿兰·德波顿审视了人们的幸福之路上最大的阻碍：关于他人如何看待自己的焦虑。对许多人来说，快乐意味着在生命中奋斗并取得成功，但成功是相对的，并常常在与自己相似之人的比较中得来。如果我们身边的人或与我们相似的人表现出了更大的财富——一个主要的衡量成功的外在标准——那么我们便会对自身价值与成功的看法趋于悲观。本片分成三部分，阿兰德波顿带观众认识身份焦虑的成因、表现，并寻求解决之道。
To try and determine the causes of status anxiety, Alain de Botton travels to America, to see how a meritocratic society works, when everyone is supposed have equality of rights and opportunity. Drawing heavily on the 1831 work by Alexis de Toqueville, “Democracy in America” and under the assumption that “their anxieties are destined to become our anxieties”, de Botton observes that, unlike the feudal, class society of de Toqueville’s Europe, where everyone knew their place within their social milieu, in American society where class has been abolished, the slightest perception of inequality is brought all the more starkly into focus. Not only however is the distinction between rich and poor more evident - when everyone is perceived to have the equal opportunities to succeed - failure is regarded as laziness and weakness. Anyone who works hard will succeed.
Returning to the common thread that lies behind much of his work, de Botton then goes on to question whether those who succeed and achieve the riches they desire are happier in proportion to the wealth they accumulate. Evidently they are not – but the question remains why not? And if not, is there another way, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed, in returning to a simpler way of life, that of the “noble savage”? And where does Christianity’s promise of rewards in the afterlife fit into all this?
In the first part, de Botton chooses well in selecting America and examining a society where status anxiety is endemic, finding the root causes and putting them to a number of philosophical and social contexts. Most crucially, he chooses his interview subjects well, questioning preachers, bums, aspirational businessmen and right-wing fundamentalists, giving each of them an equal say, allowing extreme and valid viewpoints to be aired, without ever going for the cheap shot or attempting to undermine the interviewee with his own cleverness.
In the second part of the programme, de Botton looks at how the inequalities shown in the previous episode lead to the anxieties that affect our everyday lives. Observing how people in low-paid jobs are treated with less respect than company executives, he notes how status determines the attention we are given, as are the clothes we wear, the house we live in and the car we drive. The outward display of such status symbols is clearly an indictor to the amount of money you have and the amount of respect you therefore feel you should consequently be accorded. Self-esteem is therefore very much dependent upon the approval and judgement of others, and failure to stand out from our peers often gives rise to feelings of anxiety and unhappiness. However, does consumption and the acquiring of designer goods and status symbols really give us the happiness we seek, or just debt and an increasing need to maintain a lifestyle constantly beyond our reach?
Again, de Botton takes a historical outlook on the matter, referencing William James’ view on the desire for status being a search for love, not just from a partner, but from the world. He compares the custom of duelling to the modern equivalent of the celebrity lawsuit, seeking to maintain ones respectability and status in the eyes of the world. Returning to America, he compares Thomas Jefferson’s belief in the perfectibility of every person into a self-made hero and how wealth and happiness are attainable by everyone, to George Orwell’s belief in a true socialist meritocracy, where the working class are more deserving of rewards than the classes of privilege.
Having identified the causes and manifestations of status anxiety, de Botton goes on to ask whether these ideals of society’s attitude towards the rich and privileged can be overturned. He explains that there is a history of overturning what Karl Marx identified as “ideologies” – ideas that seem to be true and immutable, but are in fact lies. These lies, once dictated by the ruling classes and religion to maintain the status quo, are now disseminated in our modern society by the power of the press, telling us what we should buy, how we can be popular, and mercilessly pouncing on failure. He takes the case of John Ruskin, an opponent of Victorian values, who challenged the desire for the accumulation of wealth and achieved real political changes. Looking at other examples of people who live alternative lifestyles – the Bloomsbury Group, naturists, bohemians and hippies – he shows that living according to your own values and not those dictated by conventional attitudes has given us all the independence and freedoms we have today to make our own choices.
De Botton’s proposals for how we can achieve a simpler, anxiety-free life – citing Marcus Aurelius, Schopenhauer, Dutch Art and a “stimulating” meditation on Death - are perhaps a little esoteric and far removed from popular positive affirmations of self-help books, but consistent with the views expressed in The Art of Travel – it’s all a matter of attitude and putting one’s life into perspective. However, like The Art of Travel, de Botton also lightens proceedings with nice touches of humour, without ever talking down or cheapening the material. To gauge the power of the media to make people feel inadequate and society’s view of failure, for example, he visits the Daily Sport office and gets them to write headlines for famous mythological and literary social transgressors, Madame Bovary, Othello and Oedipus (“Sex With Mum Was Blinding!”). It effectively proves his point in a familiar and humorous way.
Poor_Maintenence_Cover.jpg
