This week in class, all students watched a TED Talk by Alain De Botton entitled a kinder, gentler philosophy of success. I highly enjoyed this TED Talk because of De Botton’s descriptions of success and failure in modern society.
One of the many point De Botton presented in his talk was that our society is now based on merit. This means that our society believes that if you work hard enough, you’ll be successful and live higher up on the economic spectrum. Contrastingly this means that individuals who put in less effort will be less successful, and live lower on the economic spectrum. De Botton uses this characteristic in society to explain why failure is so devastating to an individual. He explains that in a meritocracy society an individual who is lower on the social economic scale would be considered a failure at life, and this assumption leads to low self esteem in individuals.
De Botton also explains that in the past, success was correlated with your birth rights; if an individual was born into a wealthy family they would be more successful and vice versa. However, in today's society an individual's success is determined by how much time and effort they put into their work. This forces people to accept their failures as their own fault rather than basing their failure off of their birthrights. Which in turn causes people to be more depressed, have low self esteem, and be suicidal.
In his talk De Botton also talks about tragedy. He states that citizens nowadays can learn a lot from greece tragedies. He explains that these stories display their characters as individuals down on their luck rather than lifetime losers. I believe that De Botton is correct in this statement because in my opinion there is always something to learn from a tragic event in one's life. I also believe that De Botton views society's perspective on success and failure to be tragic.
One of the many point De Botton presented in his talk was that our society is now based on merit. This means that our society believes that if you work hard enough, you’ll be successful and live higher up on the economic spectrum. Contrastingly this means that individuals who put in less effort will be less successful, and live lower on the economic spectrum. De Botton uses this characteristic in society to explain why failure is so devastating to an individual. He explains that in a meritocracy society an individual who is lower on the social economic scale would be considered a failure at life, and this assumption leads to low self esteem in individuals.
De Botton also explains that in the past, success was correlated with your birth rights; if an individual was born into a wealthy family they would be more successful and vice versa. However, in today's society an individual's success is determined by how much time and effort they put into their work. This forces people to accept their failures as their own fault rather than basing their failure off of their birthrights. Which in turn causes people to be more depressed, have low self esteem, and be suicidal.
In his talk De Botton also talks about tragedy. He states that citizens nowadays can learn a lot from greece tragedies. He explains that these stories display their characters as individuals down on their luck rather than lifetime losers. I believe that De Botton is correct in this statement because in my opinion there is always something to learn from a tragic event in one's life. I also believe that De Botton views society's perspective on success and failure to be tragic.