|
The past 200 years in the West have seen staggering increases in wealth and economic opportunity, and yet, there have been no comparable increases in our level of happiness. Despite being so much richer than a few generations ago, we are often more anxious about our own importance and achievements than our grandparents were. I call this modern state of restlessness and dissatisfaction status anxiety, I want to explain where, I think, much of it has come from, how it affects our lives? And what I believe we could do about it.
If we are surprised that being richer hasn't made us happy and secure, it’s because we don't understand the psychology of satisfaction. When do we feel we have enough? What enables us to feel prosperous and content? Chiefly, a comparison with other people. But it’s not good enough to compare ourselves to people who are very remote from us in time and place. It’s not gonna help anyone to feel very rich to be told that they have infinitely more money than one of their medieval ancestors who lived in a mud-wood cottage. We only feel content when we compare ourselves to people who are like us, our friends and colleagues, our neighbors. In short, the sense of being a success is all relative.
No one spends much time resenting the queen or Bill Gates. But we’re liable to get extremely resentful if someone we think is basically just like us moves into a bigger house or gets a slightly better job, we most envy people who we take to be our equals.
The modern world is based around the idea that we are all essentially equal, not necessarily financially equal, but equal in terms of rights and opportunities. It's a lovely idea which brings with it one nasty side effect. In a world in which you could believe that those at the top belonged to an inherently superior caste. You didn't need to feel humiliated by anything you didn't have. You might detest those who had more than you. But you didn't need to feel ashamed or anxious. But in a world in which everyone is supposed to be equal, but where there is still a lot of inequality around, it’s hard not to take the achievements of others as implicit reproach for everything you don't have and haven't done.
A best place to go to understand all this is the country where the idea of equality first took hold some two hundred years ago---America. (Young, ready and hungry)
In 1776, America had a revolution which changed the world. (help us to discover the secrets to our dream) The new democracy abolished the rigid class-based hierarchies of Europe. (To save yourself everyday is possible) From the first, this basic sense of equality energized America. But it also, quite unintentionally increased Americans' anxieties about what their true place was.
You may help the others adopt the subjects of all-time war--prehaps blessed and important!
Their anxieties were destined to become our anxieties.
phrases to remember
liable: 倾向于，容易，负责，可能
对......负责:
be liable for damages
I am not liable for other people's debts.
倾向于......:
be liable to catch cold
He is liable to come today.
|