Sunday, June 13, 2004

Status Anxiety at National Cathedral

The Washington Post reports status anxiety among Washingtonians attending Ronald Reagan's service:

"A funeral years in the planning -- Nancy Reagan met every six months or so with key advisers to update preparations -- began with the gradual arrival of the guests, who had colored dots discreetly marked on the back of their tickets. Black dots sat way in the back; status-conscious Washingtonians soon figured out that orange was better, red better still and yellow quite exalted. Twenty-five heads of state converged on the cathedral, and 11 former heads of state, and 180 ambassadors or foreign ministers."

Those seeking to understand Washington's obsessions might want to read Alain de Botton's charming new book, Status Anxiety, which lists among the causes of this phenomenon: lovelessness, snobbery, expectation, meritocracy, and dependendence. Among the solutions discussed are: philosophy, art, politics, Christianity, and bohemia.

A philosophical therapist, the British author, who is on a book tour--coming to Politics & Prose bookstore in the national capital on June 18th--presents his thesis that " status anxiety possesses an exceptional capacity to inspire sorrow. That the hunger for status, like all appetites, can have its uses: spurring us to do justice to our talents, encouraging excellence, restraining us from harmful eccentricities and cementing members of a society around a common value system. But, like all appetites, its excesses can also kill. That the most profitable way of addressing the condition may be to attempt to understand and to speak of it."