Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success Alain de Botton: Eine freundliche, sanfte Philosophie des Erfolgs Alain de Botton: Bottonotton: Μια πιο ευγενική, πιο ήπια φιλοσοφία της επιτυχίας Alain de Botton: Una filosofia del successo più gentile e delicata アラン・ド・ボットンより親切で優しい成功哲学 Alain de Botton: Uma filosofia de sucesso mais gentil e suave Alain de Botton: Daha nazik, daha kibar bir başarı felsefesi 阿兰·德波顿：更友善、更温和的成功哲学

For me they normally happen, these career crises,often, actually, on a Sunday evening,just as the sun is starting to set,and the gap between my hopes for myself,and the reality of my life, start to diverge so painfully that I normally end up weeping into a pillow.I’m mentioning all this,I’m mentioning all this because I think this is not merely a personal problem.You may think I’m wrong in this,but I think that we live in an age when our lives are regularly punctuated by career crises,by moments when what we thought we knew,about our lives, about our careers,comes into contact with a threatening sort of reality. بالنسبة لي، تحدث هذه الأزمات المهنية عادةً، في كثير من الأحيان، في الواقع، مساء يوم أحد، تمامًا كما تبدأ الشمس في الغروب، وتبدأ الفجوة بين آمالي لنفسي، وواقع حياتي، في التباعد بشكل مؤلم لدرجة أنني عادةً ما ينتهي بي الأمر بالبكاء على الوسادة. أنا أذكر كل هذا، أذكر كل هذا لأنني أعتقد أن هذه ليست مجرد مشكلة شخصية. قد تعتقد أنني مخطئ في هذا، ولكن أعتقد أننا نعيش في عصر تتخلل فيه حياتنا بانتظام أزمات مهنية، ولحظات يتلامس فيها ما اعتقدنا أننا نعرفه، عن حياتنا، عن حياتنا المهنية، مع نوع من التهديد من الواقع. Für mich passieren sie normalerweise, diese Karrierekrisen, oft sogar an einem Sonntagabend, gerade wenn die Sonne gerade untergeht und die Kluft zwischen meinen Hoffnungen für mich und der Realität meines Lebens so schmerzhaft auseinandergeht, dass Normalerweise weine ich am Ende in ein Kissen. Ich erwähne das alles, ich erwähne das alles, weil ich denke, dass dies nicht nur ein persönliches Problem ist. Sie mögen denken, dass ich damit falsch liege, aber ich denke, dass wir darin leben ein Zeitalter, in dem unser Leben regelmäßig von Karrierekrisen unterbrochen wird, von Momenten, in denen das, was wir zu wissen glaubten, über unser Leben, über unsere Karriere, mit einer bedrohlichen Art von Realität in Kontakt kommt. 저에게는 일요일 저녁에 일요일 저녁에 일어나는 일들이 일상적으로 일어나는이 직업 위기입니다. 실제로 태양이 시작되는 것처럼, 그리고 저의 희망과 내 삶의 현실 사이의 격차는 그렇게 고통스럽게 갈라지기 시작합니다. 나는 보통 베개로 울고 말았습니다. 나는이 모든 것을 언급하고 있습니다. 나는이 모든 것을 언급하고 있습니다. 이것은 단지 개인적인 문제가 아니라고 생각하기 때문입니다. 내가 틀렸다고 생각할 수도 있지만, 우리는 살고 있다고 생각합니다. 우리가 알고 있다고 생각했던 것, 우리의 삶, 직업에 관한 순간이 협박의 현실과 접촉 할 때, 우리의 삶이 직업 위기에 의해 규칙적으로 중단되는 시대입니다. Para mim, normalmente acontecem, essas crises de carreira, muitas vezes, na verdade, em uma noite de domingo, assim que o sol está começando a se pôr, e a lacuna entre minhas esperanças para mim e a realidade da minha vida, começam a divergir tão dolorosamente que Normalmente acabo chorando em um travesseiro. Estou mencionando tudo isso, estou mencionando tudo isso porque acho que não é apenas um problema pessoal. Você pode pensar que estou errado nisso, mas acho que vivemos uma época em que nossas vidas são regularmente pontuadas por crises profissionais, por momentos em que o que pensávamos saber, sobre nossas vidas, sobre nossas carreiras, entra em contato com uma espécie de realidade ameaçadora. Benim için normalde oluyorlar, bu kariyer krizleri, aslında, aslında, Pazar akşamı, tıpkı güneş batmaya başladıkça ve kendim için umutlarım ile hayatımın gerçekliği arasındaki boşluk o kadar acı çekmeye başlar ki: Normalde bir yastığın ağlamasına neden olurum. Bütün bunlardan bahsediyorum, bütün bunlardan bahsediyorum çünkü bunun sadece kişisel bir sorun olmadığını düşünüyorum. Bu konuda yanlış olduğumu düşünebilirsiniz, ancak içinde yaşadığımızı düşünüyorum Hayatımızın düzenli olarak kariyer krizleriyle delindiği bir dönem, yaşamlarımız hakkında, kariyerlerimiz hakkında, bildiklerimizin tehdit edici bir gerçeklikle temas ettiği anlar.

It’s perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living.It’s perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety.I want to look now, if I may,at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers.Why we might be victims of these career crises,as we’re weeping softly into our pillows.One of the reasons why we might be suffering is that we are surrounded by snobs.

In a way, I’ve got some bad news,particularly to anybody who’s come to Oxford from abroad.There is a real problem with snobbery.Because sometimes people from outside the U.K.imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K. In gewisser Weise habe ich schlechte Nachrichten, insbesondere für alle, die aus dem Ausland nach Oxford gekommen sind. Es gibt ein echtes Problem mit Snobismus. Denn manchmal stellen sich Leute von außerhalb des Vereinigten Königreichs vor, Snobismus sei typisch für Großbritannien phenomenon fixated on country houses and titles.The bad news is that’s not true.Snobbery is a global phenomenon.We are a global organization. 컨트리 하우스와 타이틀에 고정 된 현상. This is a global phenomenon.It exists. What is a snob?A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are.That is snobbery. snob이란 무엇인가? snob은 당신의 작은 부분을 취하여 그것을 당신이 누구인지에 대한 완전한 비전을 얻기 위해 사용하는 사람입니다.

The dominant kind of snobbery that exists nowadays is job snobbery.You encounter it within minutes at a party,when you get asked that famous iconic question of the early 21st century, "What do you do? Die vorherrschende Art von Snobismus, die es heutzutage gibt, ist Job-Snobismus. Sie begegnen ihm innerhalb von Minuten auf einer Party, wenn Ihnen diese berühmte ikonische Frage des frühen 21. Jahrhunderts gestellt wird: „Was machen Sie? "And according to how you answer that question,people are either incredibly delighted to see you,or look at their watch and make their excuses. (Laughter)

Now, the opposite of a snob is your mother. (Laughter)Not necessarily your mother, or indeed mine,but, as it were, the ideal mother,somebody who doesn’t care about your achievements.But unfortunately, most people are not our mothers.Most people make a strict correlation between how much time,and if you like, love -- not romantic love,though that may be something --but love in general, respect,they are willing to accord us, that will be strictly defined by our position in the social hierarchy. (Risos) Não necessariamente sua mãe, ou mesmo a minha, mas, por assim dizer, a mãe ideal, alguém que não se importa com suas realizações. Mas, infelizmente, a maioria das pessoas não são nossas mães. A maioria das pessoas faz uma correlação estrita entre como muito tempo, e se você quiser, amor - não amor romântico, embora isso possa ser algo - mas amor em geral, respeito, eles estão dispostos a nos conceder, isso será estritamente definido por nossa posição na hierarquia social.

And that’s a lot of the reason why we care so much about our careers and indeed start caring so much about material goods.You know, we’re often told that we live in very materialistic times,that we’re all greedy people.I don’t think we are particularly materialistic.I think we live in a society which has simply pegged certain emotional rewards to the acquisition of material goods.It’s not the material goods we want. E é por isso que nos importamos tanto com nossas carreiras e, de fato, começamos a nos importar tanto com os bens materiais. Sabe, muitas vezes nos dizem que vivemos em tempos muito materialistas, que somos todos gananciosos. não pense que somos particularmente materialistas. Acho que vivemos em uma sociedade que simplesmente atrelou certas recompensas emocionais à aquisição de bens materiais. Não são os bens materiais que queremos. It’s the rewards we want.And that’s a new way of looking at luxury goods.The next time you see somebody driving a Ferraridon’t think, "This is somebody who is greedy. São as recompensas que queremos. E essa é uma nova maneira de ver os bens de luxo. Da próxima vez que vir alguém dirigindo um Ferrarid, não pense: "Esse é alguém ganancioso. "Think, "This is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love. "In other words -- (Laughter)feel sympathy, rather than contempt. There are other reasons --(Laughter)there are other reasons why it’s perhaps harder nowto feel calm than ever before.One of these, and it’s paradoxical because it’s linked to something that’s rather nice,is the hope we all have for our careers.Never before have expectations been so high about what human beings can achieve with their lifespan.We’re told, from many sources, that anyone can achieve anything.We’ve done away with the caste system.We are now in a system where anyone can riseto any position they please.And it’s a beautiful idea.Along with that is a kind of spirit of equality. We’re all basically equal.There are no strictly defined kind of hierarchies.

There is one really big problem with this,and that problem is envy.Envy, it’s a real taboo to mention envy,but if there is one dominant emotion in modern society, that is envy.And it’s linked to the spirit of equality. Let me explain.I think it would be very unusual for anyone here, or anyone watching,to be envious of the Queen of England.Even though she is much richer than any of you are.And she’s got a very large house.The reason why we don’t envy her is because she’s too weird.She’s simply too strange.We can’t relate to her. She speaks in a funny way.She comes from an odd place.So we can’t relate to her. And when you can’t relate to somebody, you don’t envy them.

The closer two people are, in age, in background,in the process of identification, the more there is a danger of envy --which is incidentally why none of you should ever go to a school reunion --because there is no stronger reference point than people one was at school with.But the problem, generally, of modern society, is that it turns the whole world into a school. Everybody is wearing jeans, everybody is the same.And yet, they’re not.So there is a spirit of equality, combined with deep inequalities.Which makes for a very -- can make for a very stressful situation. Jeder trägt Jeans, jeder ist gleich. Und doch sind sie es nicht. Es gibt also einen Geist der Gleichheit, kombiniert mit tiefen Ungleichheiten. Was zu einer sehr – kann zu einer sehr stressigen Situation führen. Все носят джинсы, все одинаковые. И все же это не так. Так что существует дух равенства в сочетании с глубоким неравенством. Что создает очень... может создать очень стрессовую ситуацию.

It’s probably as unlikely that you would nowadays become as rich and famous as Bill Gates,as it was unlikely in the 17th century that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy.But the point is, it doesn’t feel that way.It’s made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets,that if you’ve got energy, a few bright ideas about technology,a garage, you too could start a major thing. Es ist wahrscheinlich so unwahrscheinlich, dass Sie heutzutage so reich und berühmt werden wie Bill Gates, wie es im 17. Jahrhundert unwahrscheinlich war, dass Sie in die Reihen der französischen Aristokratie aufsteigen würden. Aber der Punkt ist, dass es sich nicht so anfühlt. Zeitschriften und andere Medien haben den Eindruck erweckt, dass Sie mit Energie, ein paar brillanten Ideen über Technologie und einer Garage auch etwas Großes anfangen könnten. (Laughter)And the consequences of this problem make themselves felt in bookshops.When you go to a large bookshop and look at the self-help sections,as I sometimes do,if you analyze self-help books that are produced in the world today, there are basically two kinds.The first kind tells you, "You can do it! You can make it! Anything is possible! "And the other kind tells you how to copewith what we politely call "low self-esteem,"or impolitely call "feeling very bad about yourself." „Und die andere Art sagt Ihnen, wie Sie mit dem fertig werden, was wir höflich „geringes Selbstwertgefühl“ oder unhöflich „sich sehr schlecht über sich selbst fühlen“ nennen. «А другой тип говорит вам, как справиться с тем, что мы вежливо называем «заниженной самооценкой» или невежливо называем «очень плохим отношением к себе». There is a real correlationship,a real correlation between a society that tells people that they can do anything and the existence of low self-esteem.So that’s another way in which something that is quite positive can have a nasty kickback.There is another reason why we might be feeling more anxious,about our careers, about our status in the world today, than ever before.And it is, again, linked to something nice,and that nice thing is called meritocracy.

Everybody, all politicians on Left and Right,agree that meritocracy is a great thing,and we should all be trying to make our societies really, really meritocratic.In other words, what is a meritocratic society?A meritocratic society is one in whichif you’ve got talent and energy and skill,you will get to the top. Nothing should hold you back.It’s a beautiful idea. The problem is if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top,you’ll also, by implication, and in a far more nasty way,believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there.In other words, your position in life comes to seem not accidental,but merited and deserved.And that makes failure seem much more crushing. Das Problem ist, wenn Sie wirklich an eine Gesellschaft glauben, in der diejenigen, die es verdienen, an die Spitze zu kommen, auch an die Spitze kommen, werden Sie implizit und auf eine viel schlimmere Weise auch an eine Gesellschaft glauben, in der diejenigen, die es verdienen, an die Spitze kommen auf den Grund gehen auch auf den Grund gehen und dort bleiben. Mit anderen Worten, Ihre Position im Leben scheint nicht zufällig, sondern verdient und verdient zu sein. Und das lässt das Scheitern viel niederschmetternder erscheinen.

You know, in the Middle Ages, in England,when you met a very poor person,that person would be described as an "unfortunate" --literally, somebody who had not been blessed by fortune, an unfortunate.Nowadays, particularly in the United States,if you meet someone at the bottom of society,they may unkindly be described as a "loser. Wissen Sie, wenn Sie im Mittelalter in England eine sehr arme Person trafen, wurde diese Person als „unglücklich“ bezeichnet – buchstäblich als jemand, der nicht vom Glück gesegnet war, als unglücklich Vereinigten Staaten, wenn Sie jemanden am unteren Rand der Gesellschaft treffen, wird er möglicherweise unfreundlich als "Verlierer" bezeichnet. "There is a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser,and that shows 400 years of evolution in society and our belief in who is responsible for our lives.It’s no longer the gods, it’s us. We’re in the driving seat.

That’s exhilarating if you’re doing well,and very crushing if you’re not.It leads, in the worst cases, in the analysis of a sociologist like Emil Durkheim, it leads to increased rates of suicide.There are more suicides in developed individualistic countries than in any other part of the world.And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens to them extremely personally.They own their success. Das ist berauschend, wenn es einem gut geht, und sehr niederschmetternd, wenn nicht. Es führt im schlimmsten Fall, so die Analyse eines Soziologen wie Emil Durkheim, zu erhöhten Selbstmordraten. Es gibt mehr Selbstmorde in der Entwicklung individualistische Länder als in jedem anderen Teil der Welt. Und das liegt unter anderem daran, dass die Menschen das, was ihnen widerfährt, sehr persönlich nehmen. Ihr Erfolg gehört ihnen. But they also own their failure.

Is there any relief from some of these pressures that I’ve just been outlining?I think there is. Gibt es irgendeine Erleichterung von einigen dieser Belastungen, die ich gerade umrissen habe? Ich denke, es gibt eine Erleichterung. I just want to turn to a few of them.Let’s take meritocracy.This idea that everybody deserves to get where they get to,I think it’s a crazy idea, completely crazy.I will support any politician of Left and Right,with any halfway decent meritocratic idea.I am a meritocrat in that sense.But I think it’s insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic. Ich möchte mich nur einigen von ihnen zuwenden. Nehmen wir die Meritokratie. Diese Idee, dass jeder es verdient, dorthin zu gelangen, wo er hinkommt, halte ich für eine verrückte Idee, völlig verrückt anständige meritokratische Idee. Ich bin in diesem Sinne ein Meritokrat. Aber ich denke, es ist verrückt zu glauben, dass wir jemals eine Gesellschaft schaffen werden, die wirklich meritokratisch ist. It’s an impossible dream.

The idea that we will make a society where literally everybody is graded,the good at the top, and the bad at the bottom,and it’s exactly done as it should be, is impossible.There are simply too many random factors:accidents, accidents of birth,accidents of things dropping on people’s heads, illnesses, etc.We will never get to grade them,never get to grade people as they should.

I’m drawn to a lovely quote by St. Augustine in "The City of God,"where he says, "It’s a sin to judge any man by his post. Augustinus in „The City of God“, wo er sagt: „Es ist eine Sünde, einen Menschen nach seinem Posten zu beurteilen. "In modern English that would mean it’s a sin to come to any view of who you should talk to dependent on their business card.It’s not the post that should count.According to St. Augustine,it’s only God who can really put everybody in their place.And he’s going to do that on the Day of Judgment with angels and trumpets, and the skies will open.Insane idea, if you’re a secularist person, like me.But something very valuable in that idea, nevertheless.

In other words, hold your horses when you’re coming to judge people.You don’t necessarily know what someone’s true value is.That is an unknown part of them.And we shouldn’t behave as though it is known.There is another source of solace and comfort for all this.When we think about failing in life, when we think about failure,one of the reasons why we fear failing is not justa loss of income, a loss of status.What we fear is the judgment and ridicule of others. Mit anderen Worten, halten Sie Ihre Pferde, wenn Sie kommen, um Menschen zu beurteilen. Sie wissen nicht unbedingt, was der wahre Wert einer Person ist. Das ist ein unbekannter Teil von ihnen. Und wir sollten uns nicht so verhalten, als ob es bekannt wäre eine weitere Quelle des Trostes und Trostes für all dies. Wenn wir an das Scheitern im Leben denken, wenn wir an das Scheitern denken, ist einer der Gründe, warum wir das Scheitern fürchten, nicht nur ein Einkommensverlust, ein Statusverlust. Was wir fürchten, ist das Urteil und Spott über andere. And it exists.

You know, the number one organ of ridicule nowadays, is the newspaper.And if you open the newspaper any day of the week,it’s full of people who’ve messed up their lives.They’ve slept with the wrong person. They’ve taken the wrong substance.They’ve passed the wrong piece of legislation. Whatever it is.And then are fit for ridicule.In other words, they have failed. And they are described as "losers. "Now is there any alternative to this?I think the Western tradition shows us one glorious alternative,and that is tragedy. Tragic art, as it developed in the theaters of ancient Greece,in the fifth century B.C., was essentially an art form devoted to tracing how people fail,and also according them a level of sympathy,which ordinary life would not necessarily accord them.I remember a few years ago, I was thinking about all this,and I went to see "The Sunday Sport,"a tabloid newspaper that I don’t recommend you to start reading if you’re not familiar with it already.I went to talk to them about certain of the great tragedies of Western art.I wanted to see how they would seize the bare bones of certain stories if they came in as a news item at the news desk on a Saturday afternoon. So I told them about Othello. They had not heard of it but were fascinated by it. (Laughter)And I asked them to write the headline for the story of Othello.They came up with "Love-Crazed Immigrant Kills Senator’s Daughter" splashed across the headline.I gave them the plotline of Madame Bovary.Again, a book they were enchanted to discover.And they wrote "Shopaholic Adulteress Swallows Arsenic After Credit Fraud. "(Laughter)And then my favorite.They really do have a kind of genius all of their own, these guys.My favorite is Sophocles' Oedipus the King:"Sex With Mum Was Blinding"(Laughter)(Applause) "(Смех) А потом мой любимый. В них действительно есть что-то от своего гения, в этих парнях. Мой любимый - "Царь Эдип" Софокла: "Секс с мамой был ослепляющим" (Смех) (Аплодисменты) In a way, if you like, at one end of the spectrum of sympathy,you’ve got the tabloid newspaper.At the other end of the spectrum you’ve got tragedy and tragic art,and I suppose I’m arguing that we should learn a little bit about what’s happening in tragic art.It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser.He is not a loser, though he has lost.And I think that is the message of tragedy to us,and why it’s so very, very important, I think.

The other thing about modern society and why it causes this anxiety is that we have nothing at its center that is non-human.We are the first society to be living in a world where we don’t worship anything other than ourselves.We think very highly of ourselves, and so we should.We’ve put people on the moon. Die andere Sache an der modernen Gesellschaft und warum sie diese Angst verursacht, ist, dass wir nichts Nicht-Menschliches in ihrem Zentrum haben. Wir sind die erste Gesellschaft, die in einer Welt lebt, in der wir nichts anderes als uns selbst anbeten. Denken wir sehr hoch von uns selbst, und das sollten wir auch. Wir haben Menschen auf den Mond gebracht. We’ve done all sorts of extraordinary things.And so we tend to worship ourselves.

Our heroes are human heroes.That’s a very new situation.Most other societies have had, right at their center,the worship of something transcendent: a god,a spirit, a natural force, the universe,whatever it is, something else that is being worshiped.We’ve slightly lost the habit of doing that,which is, I think, why we’re particularly drawn to nature.Not for the sake of our health, though it’s often presented that way,but because it’s an escape from the human anthill.It’s an escape from our own competition,and our own dramas.And that’s why we enjoy looking at glaciers and oceans,and contemplating the Earth from outside its perimeters, etc.We like to feel in contact with something that is non-human,and that is so deeply important to us.

What I think I’ve been talking about really is success and failure.And one of the interesting things about successis that we think we know what it means.If I said to you that there is somebody behind the screen who is very very successful, certain ideas would immediately come to mind.You would think that person might have made a lot of money,achieved renown in some field.My own theory of success -- and I’m somebody who is very interested in success. I really want to be successful.I’m always thinking, "How could I be more successful? "But as I get older, I’m also very nuanced about what that word "success" might mean. Here’s an insight that I’ve had about success.You can’t be successful at everything.We hear a lot of talk about work-life balance.Nonsense. You can’t have it all. You can’t.So any vision of success has to admit what it’s losing out on,where the element of loss is.I think any wise life will accept,as I say, that there is going to be an element where we are not succeeding. Das können Sie nicht. Also muss jede Vision von Erfolg zugeben, was sie verliert, wo das Verlustelement liegt. Ich denke, jedes weise Leben wird akzeptieren, wie ich schon sagte, dass es ein Element geben wird, wo wir es nicht sind gelingen.

Thing about a successful life is, a lot of the time, our ideas of what it would mean to live successfully are not our own.They are sucked in from other people:chiefly, if you’re a man, your father,and if you’re a woman, your mother.Psychoanalysis has been drumming home this message for about 80 years.No one is quite listening hard enough, but I very much believe that that’s true. Die Sache mit einem erfolgreichen Leben ist, dass unsere Vorstellungen davon, was es bedeuten würde, erfolgreich zu leben, oft nicht unsere eigenen sind. Sie werden von anderen Menschen aufgesaugt: hauptsächlich, wenn Sie ein Mann sind, Ihr Vater und wenn Sie sind eine Frau, Ihre Mutter. Die Psychoanalyse trommelt diese Botschaft seit etwa 80 Jahren ein. Niemand hört genau genug zu, aber ich glaube fest daran, dass das stimmt.

And we also suck in messages from everything from the television, to advertising,to marketing, etc.These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves.When we’re told that banking is a very respectable profession a lot of us want to go into banking.When banking is no longer so respectable, we lose interest in banking.We are highly open to suggestion.

So what I want to argue for is not that we should give upon our ideas of success,but we should make sure that they are our own.We should focus in on our ideas.and make sure that we own them,that we are truly the authors of our own ambitions.Because it’s bad enough, not getting what you want,but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of a journey,that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.

So I’m going to end it there.But what I really want to stress is by all means, success, yes.But let’s accept the strangeness of some of our ideas.Let’s probe away at our notions of success.Let’s make sure our ideas of success are truly our own.Thank you very much. (Applause)

Chris Anderson: That was fascinating. How do you reconcile this idea of someone being --it being bad to think of someone as a loser with the idea, that a lot of people like, of seizing control of your life.And that a society that encourages that perhaps has to have some winners and losers. Wie bringt man diese Vorstellung von jemandem – es ist schlecht, jemanden als Verlierer zu sehen – mit der Vorstellung in Einklang, die viele Menschen mögen, die Kontrolle über sein Leben zu übernehmen. Und das muss eine Gesellschaft, die das vielleicht fördert, haben einige Gewinner und Verlierer.

Alain de Botton: Yes. I think it’s merely the randomness of the winning and losing process that I wanted to stress.Because the emphas is nowadays is so muchon the justice of everything,and politicians always talk about justice.Now I am a firm believer in justice, I just think that it is impossible.So we should do everything we can,we should do everything we can to pursue it.But at the end of the day we should always remember that whoever is facing us, whatever has happened in their lives,there will be a strong element of the haphazard.And it’s that that I’m trying to leave room for.Because otherwise it can get quite claustrophobic. Ich denke, es ist nur die Zufälligkeit des Gewinnens und Verlierens, die ich betonen wollte. Weil die Betonung heutzutage so sehr auf der Gerechtigkeit von allem liegt und Politiker immer von Gerechtigkeit sprechen. Jetzt glaube ich fest an Gerechtigkeit, denke ich nur dass es unmöglich ist. Also sollten wir alles tun, was wir können, wir sollten alles tun, um es zu verfolgen. Aber am Ende des Tages sollten wir uns immer daran erinnern, dass jeder, der uns gegenübersteht, was auch immer in seinem Leben passiert ist, es geben wird ein starkes Element des Zufälligen. Und dem versuche ich Raum zu lassen. Denn sonst kann es ziemlich klaustrophobisch werden.

CA: I mean, do you believe that you can combine your kind of kinder, gentler philosophy of work with a successful economy?Or do you think that you can’t?But it doesn’t matter that much that we’re putting too much emphasis on that?

AB: The nightmare thought is that frightening people is the best way to get work out of them,and that somehow the crueler the environment the more people will rise to the challenge.You want to think, who would you like as your ideal dad?And your ideal dad is somebody who is tough but gentle.And it’s a very hard line to make.We need fathers, as it were, the exemplary father figures in society,avoiding the two extremes,which is the authoritarian, disciplinarian, on the one hand,and on the other, the lax, no rules option.

CA: Alain de Botton.

AB: Thank you very much. (Applause)