Alain de Botton on Pessimism

22 Mar 2009

Speakers: Alain de Botton

Why Now?

So many important questions of debate rely, ultimately, on an evaluation of imponderables that it is worth asking if there is any virtue in having a systematic bias on these imponderables. And maybe, when we boil it down, many of our disagreements are about whether we are optimists or pessimists. There certainly seems to be a spate of declarations, amongst our public intellectuals, as to whether they are half-empty or half-full types...and that's glasses, we're talking about.

Matt Ridley has just published The Rational Optimist – a defense of a faith in progress; Roger Scruton, well known to Intelligence Squared audiences (for example here on beauty, here on religion, here on hunting) has just published On the Uses of Pessimism; Raymond Tallis, who has argued against the commodification of sex at Intelligence Squared, had written an earlier book Enemies of Hope. You can read the hopeful Tallis agreeing - most of the time - with the pessimistic Scruton in a long transcript in this month's edition of Standpoint in which they both agree that optimistic Ridley assumes too much "niceness" in humanity. And - if you are in the UK and have access to the BBC iPlayer - you can listen to pessimistic Scruton agreeing with optimistic Ridley that prosperity brings moral as well as material progress in its wake.

In all the fog of agreement between the semi-fullers and semi-emptiers, it is still true that optimism is basically a liberal instinct and pessimism a conservative one. Alain de Botton, aesthete and philosopher, in this Sunday sermon given to the atheistic School of Life, goes to the heart of political persuasion by bigging up virtues of pessimism.

Summary

Alain de Botton explains how crisis is the norm of society. Life is a deeply troubled and complicated affair. de Botton explains that often, the best way to achieve is to lower expectations, not to believe we can succeed. He then turns to the Roman Stoic philosophers, who believed that philosophy could keep you sane in the face of destruction; they also felt that optimism leads to anger. Decreasing one's expectations not only reduces anger, it is a logical step if one believes that very often control does not lie in the hands of the actor. As de Botton explains with reference to Fortuna, the Roman God of Fortune, control often resides with someone else, and success or failure are arbitrary.

de Botton then describes the cultural artefacts of pessimism and how music and art confirm that sadness is the default state of humankind. A large part of this culture is self-help books, which as de Botton illustrates, are often more depressing than uplifting. The result of the broadening of self-empowering movements is to Botton worry. With a sense of opportunity comes a sense of envy and low worth. To counteract this are self-help books on self-esteem. de Botton uses his theory of pessimism to explain common misconceptions of life. Marriage, an institution that is hundreds of years old has changed relatively recently, becoming desirable due to its implications of love and happiness. Marriage was not sought after for either sentiment previously. Just as the numbers of people who are actually happy in their work place is by far the minority, assuming happiness is an inherent part of marriage is unfounded.

Far from being depressing pessimism can help to realign priorities, that is, negotiating death and demolition help us to appreciate who and what we are in life. Sad art and sad music can help to alleviate distress and unite people. Sadness is also sexually attractive, de Botton insists, both physically and emotionally. Confession of this sadness is also the origins of our most meaningful relationships. Living dark moments to the full, rather than treating them as abhorrent is Botton’s closing advice. Botton, like Nietzsche believes that there is indelible relationship between the ability to experience suffering and the ability to succeed and be happy.