0:00:00.000,0:00:03.000
For me they normally happen, these career crises,

0:00:03.000,0:00:05.000
often, actually, on a Sunday evening,

0:00:05.000,0:00:07.000
just as the sun is starting to set,

0:00:07.000,0:00:10.000
and the gap between my hopes for myself,

0:00:10.000,0:00:14.000
and the reality of my life, start to diverge so painfully

0:00:14.000,0:00:17.000
that I normally end up weeping into a pillow.

0:00:17.000,0:00:19.000
I'm mentioning all this,

0:00:19.000,0:00:22.000
I'm mentioning all this because I think this is not merely a personal problem.

0:00:22.000,0:00:24.000
You may think I'm wrong in this,

0:00:24.000,0:00:26.000
but I think that we live in an age when our lives are regularly

0:00:26.000,0:00:28.000
punctuated by career crises,

0:00:28.000,0:00:30.000
by moments when what we thought we knew,

0:00:30.000,0:00:32.000
about our lives, about our careers,

0:00:32.000,0:00:36.000
comes into contact with a threatening sort of reality.

0:00:36.000,0:00:39.000
It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living.

0:00:39.000,0:00:42.000
It's perhaps harder than ever before

0:00:42.000,0:00:45.000
to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety.

0:00:45.000,0:00:47.000
I want to look now, if I may,

0:00:47.000,0:00:49.000
at some of the reasons why

0:00:49.000,0:00:52.000
we might be feeling anxiety about our careers.

0:00:52.000,0:00:54.000
Why we might be victims of these career crises,

0:00:54.000,0:00:58.000
as we're weeping softly into our pillows.

0:00:58.000,0:01:01.000
One of the reasons why we might be suffering

0:01:01.000,0:01:03.000
is that we are surrounded by snobs.

0:01:03.000,0:01:06.000
In a way, I've got some bad news,

0:01:06.000,0:01:09.000
particularly to anybody who's come to Oxford from abroad.

0:01:09.000,0:01:11.000
There is a real problem with snobbery.

0:01:11.000,0:01:13.000
Because sometimes people from outside the U.K.

0:01:13.000,0:01:15.000
imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K. phenomenon

0:01:15.000,0:01:18.000
fixated on country houses and titles.

0:01:18.000,0:01:20.000
The bad news is that's not true.

0:01:20.000,0:01:22.000
Snobbery is a global phenomenon.

0:01:22.000,0:01:24.000
We are a global organization. This is a global phenomenon.

0:01:24.000,0:01:26.000
It exists. What is a snob?

0:01:26.000,0:01:29.000
A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you

0:01:29.000,0:01:32.000
and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are.

0:01:32.000,0:01:34.000
That is snobbery.

0:01:34.000,0:01:36.000
The dominant kind of snobbery

0:01:36.000,0:01:38.000
that exists nowadays is job snobbery.

0:01:38.000,0:01:40.000
You encounter it within minutes at a party,

0:01:40.000,0:01:43.000
when you get asked that famous iconic question

0:01:43.000,0:01:46.000
of the early 21st century, "What do you do?"

0:01:46.000,0:01:48.000
And according to how you answer that question,

0:01:48.000,0:01:50.000
people are either incredibly delighted to see you,

0:01:50.000,0:01:52.000
or look at their watch and make their excuses.

0:01:52.000,0:01:53.000
(Laughter)

0:01:53.000,0:01:56.000
Now, the opposite of a snob is your mother.

0:01:56.000,0:01:58.000
(Laughter)

0:01:58.000,0:02:01.000
Not necessarily your mother, or indeed mine,

0:02:01.000,0:02:03.000
but, as it were, the ideal mother,

0:02:03.000,0:02:05.000
somebody who doesn't care about your achievements.

0:02:05.000,0:02:07.000
But unfortunately, most people are not our mothers.

0:02:07.000,0:02:10.000
Most people make a strict correlation between how much time,

0:02:10.000,0:02:12.000
and if you like, love -- not romantic love,

0:02:12.000,0:02:14.000
though that may be something --

0:02:14.000,0:02:16.000
but love in general, respect,

0:02:16.000,0:02:19.000
they are willing to accord us, that will be strictly defined

0:02:19.000,0:02:21.000
by our position in the social hierarchy.

0:02:21.000,0:02:24.000
And that's a lot of the reason why we care so much about our careers

0:02:24.000,0:02:28.000
and indeed start caring so much about material goods.

0:02:28.000,0:02:31.000
You know, we're often told that we live in very materialistic times,

0:02:31.000,0:02:33.000
that we're all greedy people.

0:02:33.000,0:02:35.000
I don't think we are particularly materialistic.

0:02:35.000,0:02:37.000
I think we live in a society

0:02:37.000,0:02:39.000
which has simply pegged certain emotional rewards

0:02:39.000,0:02:42.000
to the acquisition of material goods.

0:02:42.000,0:02:45.000
It's not the material goods we want. It's the rewards we want.

0:02:45.000,0:02:47.000
And that's a new way of looking at luxury goods.

0:02:47.000,0:02:49.000
The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari

0:02:49.000,0:02:51.000
don't think, "This is somebody who is greedy."

0:02:51.000,0:02:54.000
Think, "This is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love."

0:02:54.000,0:02:59.000
In other words -- (Laughter)

0:02:59.000,0:03:01.000
feel sympathy, rather than contempt.

0:03:01.000,0:03:03.000
There are other reasons --

0:03:03.000,0:03:04.000
(Laughter)

0:03:04.000,0:03:06.000
there are other reasons why it's perhaps harder now

0:03:06.000,0:03:08.000
to feel calm than ever before.

0:03:08.000,0:03:11.000
One of these, and it's paradoxical because it's linked to something that's rather nice,

0:03:11.000,0:03:14.000
is the hope we all have for our careers.

0:03:14.000,0:03:16.000
Never before have expectations been so high

0:03:16.000,0:03:19.000
about what human beings can achieve with their lifespan.

0:03:19.000,0:03:22.000
We're told, from many sources, that anyone can achieve anything.

0:03:22.000,0:03:24.000
We've done away with the caste system.

0:03:24.000,0:03:26.000
We are now in a system where anyone can rise

0:03:26.000,0:03:28.000
to any position they please.

0:03:28.000,0:03:30.000
And it's a beautiful idea.

0:03:30.000,0:03:34.000
Along with that is a kind of spirit of equality. We're all basically equal.

0:03:34.000,0:03:36.000
There are no strictly defined

0:03:36.000,0:03:38.000
kind of hierarchies.

0:03:38.000,0:03:40.000
There is one really big problem with this,

0:03:40.000,0:03:42.000
and that problem is envy.

0:03:42.000,0:03:45.000
Envy, it's a real taboo to mention envy,

0:03:45.000,0:03:48.000
but if there is one dominant emotion in modern society, that is envy.

0:03:48.000,0:03:52.000
And it's linked to the spirit of equality. Let me explain.

0:03:52.000,0:03:55.000
I think it would be very unusual for anyone here, or anyone watching,

0:03:55.000,0:03:57.000
to be envious of the Queen of England.

0:03:57.000,0:04:00.000
Even though she is much richer than any of you are.

0:04:00.000,0:04:03.000
And she's got a very large house.

0:04:03.000,0:04:07.000
The reason why we don't envy her is because she's too weird.

0:04:07.000,0:04:09.000
She's simply too strange.

0:04:09.000,0:04:11.000
We can't relate to her. She speaks in a funny way.

0:04:11.000,0:04:13.000
She comes from an odd place.

0:04:13.000,0:04:17.000
So we can't relate to her. And when you can't relate to somebody, you don't envy them.

0:04:17.000,0:04:20.000
The closer two people are, in age, in background,

0:04:20.000,0:04:23.000
in the process of identification, the more there is a danger of envy --

0:04:23.000,0:04:26.000
which is incidentally why none of you should ever go to a school reunion --

0:04:26.000,0:04:29.000
because there is no stronger reference point

0:04:29.000,0:04:31.000
than people one was at school with.

0:04:31.000,0:04:34.000
But the problem, generally, of modern society, is that it turns the whole world

0:04:34.000,0:04:36.000
into a school. Everybody is wearing jeans, everybody is the same.

0:04:36.000,0:04:38.000
And yet, they're not.

0:04:38.000,0:04:41.000
So there is a spirit of equality, combined with deep inequalities.

0:04:41.000,0:04:44.000
Which makes for a very -- can make for a very stressful situation.

0:04:44.000,0:04:46.000
It's probably as unlikely that you would nowadays

0:04:46.000,0:04:48.000
become as rich and famous as Bill Gates,

0:04:48.000,0:04:50.000
as it was unlikely in the 17th century

0:04:50.000,0:04:53.000
that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy.

0:04:53.000,0:04:55.000
But the point is, it doesn't feel that way.

0:04:55.000,0:04:58.000
It's made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets,

0:04:58.000,0:05:01.000
that if you've got energy, a few bright ideas about technology,

0:05:01.000,0:05:05.000
a garage, you too could start a major thing.

0:05:05.000,0:05:06.000
(Laughter)

0:05:06.000,0:05:09.000
And the consequences of this problem make themselves felt in bookshops.

0:05:09.000,0:05:12.000
When you go to a large bookshop and look at the self-help sections,

0:05:12.000,0:05:14.000
as I sometimes do,

0:05:14.000,0:05:16.000
if you analyze self-help books that are produced

0:05:16.000,0:05:18.000
in the world today, there are basically two kinds.

0:05:18.000,0:05:21.000
The first kind tells you, "You can do it! You can make it! Anything is possible!"

0:05:21.000,0:05:24.000
And the other kind tells you how to cope

0:05:24.000,0:05:27.000
with what we politely call "low self-esteem,"

0:05:27.000,0:05:29.000
or impolitely call "feeling very bad about yourself."

0:05:29.000,0:05:31.000
There is a real correlationship,

0:05:31.000,0:05:35.000
a real correlation between a society that tells people that they can do anything

0:05:35.000,0:05:37.000
and the existence of low self-esteem.

0:05:37.000,0:05:39.000
So that's another way in which something that is quite positive

0:05:39.000,0:05:41.000
can have a nasty kickback.

0:05:41.000,0:05:44.000
There is another reason why we might be feeling more anxious,

0:05:44.000,0:05:48.000
about our careers, about our status in the world today, than ever before.

0:05:48.000,0:05:50.000
And it is, again, linked to something nice,

0:05:50.000,0:05:53.000
and that nice thing is called meritocracy.

0:05:53.000,0:05:55.000
Everybody, all politicians on Left and Right,

0:05:55.000,0:05:57.000
agree that meritocracy is a great thing,

0:05:57.000,0:06:01.000
and we should all be trying to make our societies really, really meritocratic.

0:06:01.000,0:06:05.000
In other words, what is a meritocratic society?

0:06:05.000,0:06:07.000
A meritocratic society is one in which

0:06:07.000,0:06:09.000
if you've got talent and energy and skill,

0:06:09.000,0:06:11.000
you will get to the top. Nothing should hold you back.

0:06:11.000,0:06:14.000
It's a beautiful idea. The problem is

0:06:14.000,0:06:16.000
if you really believe in a society

0:06:16.000,0:06:19.000
where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top,

0:06:19.000,0:06:22.000
you'll also, by implication, and in a far more nasty way,

0:06:22.000,0:06:25.000
believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom

0:06:25.000,0:06:28.000
also get to the bottom and stay there.

0:06:28.000,0:06:31.000
In other words, your position in life comes to seem not accidental,

0:06:31.000,0:06:33.000
but merited and deserved.

0:06:33.000,0:06:36.000
And that makes failure seem much more crushing.

0:06:36.000,0:06:38.000
You know, in the Middle Ages, in England,

0:06:38.000,0:06:40.000
when you met a very poor person,

0:06:40.000,0:06:43.000
that person would be described as an "unfortunate" --

0:06:43.000,0:06:47.000
literally, somebody who had not been blessed by fortune, an unfortunate.

0:06:47.000,0:06:49.000
Nowadays, particularly in the United States,

0:06:49.000,0:06:51.000
if you meet someone at the bottom of society,

0:06:51.000,0:06:54.000
they may unkindly be described as a "loser."

0:06:54.000,0:06:57.000
There is a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser,

0:06:57.000,0:07:00.000
and that shows 400 years of evolution in society

0:07:00.000,0:07:03.000
and our belief in who is responsible for our lives.

0:07:03.000,0:07:06.000
It's no longer the gods, it's us. We're in the driving seat.

0:07:06.000,0:07:08.000
That's exhilarating if you're doing well,

0:07:08.000,0:07:10.000
and very crushing if you're not.

0:07:10.000,0:07:13.000
It leads, in the worst cases, in the analysis of a sociologist

0:07:13.000,0:07:17.000
like Emil Durkheim, it leads to increased rates of suicide.

0:07:17.000,0:07:20.000
There are more suicides in developed individualistic countries

0:07:20.000,0:07:22.000
than in any other part of the world.

0:07:22.000,0:07:24.000
And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens

0:07:24.000,0:07:26.000
to them extremely personally.

0:07:26.000,0:07:30.000
They own their success. But they also own their failure.

0:07:30.000,0:07:32.000
Is there any relief from some of these pressures

0:07:32.000,0:07:34.000
that I've just been outlining?

0:07:34.000,0:07:36.000
I think there is. I just want to turn to a few of them.

0:07:36.000,0:07:38.000
Let's take meritocracy.

0:07:38.000,0:07:41.000
This idea that everybody deserves to get where they get to,

0:07:41.000,0:07:44.000
I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy.

0:07:44.000,0:07:46.000
I will support any politician of Left and Right,

0:07:46.000,0:07:48.000
with any halfway decent meritocratic idea.

0:07:48.000,0:07:50.000
I am a meritocrat in that sense.

0:07:50.000,0:07:52.000
But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever

0:07:52.000,0:07:56.000
make a society that is genuinely meritocratic. It's an impossible dream.

0:07:56.000,0:07:58.000
The idea that we will make a society

0:07:58.000,0:08:00.000
where literally everybody is graded,

0:08:00.000,0:08:02.000
the good at the top, and the bad at the bottom,

0:08:02.000,0:08:04.000
and it's exactly done as it should be, is impossible.

0:08:04.000,0:08:06.000
There are simply too many random factors:

0:08:06.000,0:08:08.000
accidents, accidents of birth,

0:08:08.000,0:08:11.000
accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc.

0:08:11.000,0:08:13.000
We will never get to grade them,

0:08:13.000,0:08:15.000
never get to grade people as they should.

0:08:15.000,0:08:18.000
I'm drawn to a lovely quote by St. Augustine in "The City of God,"

0:08:18.000,0:08:22.000
where he says, "It's a sin to judge any man by his post."

0:08:22.000,0:08:24.000
In modern English that would mean

0:08:24.000,0:08:26.000
it's a sin to come to any view of who you should talk to

0:08:26.000,0:08:28.000
dependent on their business card.

0:08:28.000,0:08:30.000
It's not the post that should count.

0:08:30.000,0:08:32.000
According to St. Augustine,

0:08:32.000,0:08:34.000
it's only God who can really put everybody in their place.

0:08:34.000,0:08:36.000
And he's going to do that on the Day of Judgment

0:08:36.000,0:08:38.000
with angels and trumpets, and the skies will open.

0:08:38.000,0:08:41.000
Insane idea, if you're a secularist person, like me.

0:08:41.000,0:08:43.000
But something very valuable in that idea, nevertheless.

0:08:43.000,0:08:47.000
In other words, hold your horses when you're coming to judge people.

0:08:47.000,0:08:50.000
You don't necessarily know what someone's true value is.

0:08:50.000,0:08:52.000
That is an unknown part of them.

0:08:52.000,0:08:55.000
And we shouldn't behave as though it is known.

0:08:55.000,0:08:58.000
There is another source of solace and comfort for all this.

0:08:58.000,0:09:01.000
When we think about failing in life, when we think about failure,

0:09:01.000,0:09:03.000
one of the reasons why we fear failing is not just

0:09:03.000,0:09:05.000
a loss of income, a loss of status.

0:09:05.000,0:09:09.000
What we fear is the judgment and ridicule of others. And it exists.

0:09:09.000,0:09:11.000
You know, the number one organ of ridicule

0:09:11.000,0:09:13.000
nowadays, is the newspaper.

0:09:13.000,0:09:15.000
And if you open the newspaper any day of the week,

0:09:15.000,0:09:17.000
it's full of people who've messed up their lives.

0:09:17.000,0:09:20.000
They've slept with the wrong person. They've taken the wrong substance.

0:09:20.000,0:09:22.000
They've passed the wrong piece of legislation. Whatever it is.

0:09:22.000,0:09:25.000
And then are fit for ridicule.

0:09:25.000,0:09:28.000
In other words, they have failed. And they are described as "losers."

0:09:28.000,0:09:30.000
Now is there any alternative to this?

0:09:30.000,0:09:32.000
I think the Western tradition shows us one glorious alternative,

0:09:32.000,0:09:35.000
and that is tragedy.

0:09:35.000,0:09:38.000
Tragic art, as it developed in the theaters of ancient Greece,

0:09:38.000,0:09:40.000
in the fifth century B.C., was essentially an art form

0:09:40.000,0:09:43.000
devoted to tracing how people fail,

0:09:43.000,0:09:47.000
and also according them a level of sympathy,

0:09:47.000,0:09:51.000
which ordinary life would not necessarily accord them.

0:09:51.000,0:09:52.000
I remember a few years ago, I was thinking about all this,

0:09:52.000,0:09:54.000
and I went to see "The Sunday Sport,"

0:09:54.000,0:09:57.000
a tabloid newspaper that I don't recommend you to start reading

0:09:57.000,0:09:59.000
if you're not familiar with it already.

0:09:59.000,0:10:01.000
I went to talk to them

0:10:01.000,0:10:04.000
about certain of the great tragedies of Western art.

0:10:04.000,0:10:06.000
I wanted to see how they would seize the bare bones

0:10:06.000,0:10:09.000
of certain stories if they came in as a news item

0:10:09.000,0:10:12.000
at the news desk on a Saturday afternoon.

0:10:12.000,0:10:14.000
So I told them about Othello. They had not heard of it but were fascinated by it.

0:10:14.000,0:10:15.000
(Laughter)

0:10:15.000,0:10:18.000
And I asked them to write the headline for the story of Othello.

0:10:18.000,0:10:21.000
They came up with "Love-Crazed Immigrant Kills Senator's Daughter"

0:10:21.000,0:10:23.000
splashed across the headline.

0:10:23.000,0:10:25.000
I gave them the plotline of Madame Bovary.

0:10:25.000,0:10:27.000
Again, a book they were enchanted to discover.

0:10:27.000,0:10:32.000
And they wrote "Shopaholic Adulteress Swallows Arsenic After Credit Fraud."

0:10:32.000,0:10:33.000
(Laughter)

0:10:33.000,0:10:35.000
And then my favorite.

0:10:35.000,0:10:37.000
They really do have a kind of genius all of their own, these guys.

0:10:37.000,0:10:39.000
My favorite is Sophocles' Oedipus the King:

0:10:39.000,0:10:42.000
"Sex With Mum Was Blinding"

0:10:42.000,0:10:45.000
(Laughter)

0:10:45.000,0:10:47.000
(Applause)

0:10:47.000,0:10:50.000
In a way, if you like, at one end of the spectrum of sympathy,

0:10:50.000,0:10:52.000
you've got the tabloid newspaper.

0:10:52.000,0:10:55.000
At the other end of the spectrum you've got tragedy and tragic art,

0:10:55.000,0:10:57.000
and I suppose I'm arguing that we should learn a little bit

0:10:57.000,0:10:59.000
about what's happening in tragic art.

0:10:59.000,0:11:02.000
It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser.

0:11:02.000,0:11:05.000
He is not a loser, though he has lost.

0:11:05.000,0:11:07.000
And I think that is the message of tragedy to us,

0:11:07.000,0:11:10.000
and why it's so very, very important, I think.

0:11:10.000,0:11:12.000
The other thing about modern society

0:11:12.000,0:11:14.000
and why it causes this anxiety

0:11:14.000,0:11:17.000
is that we have nothing at its center that is non-human.

0:11:17.000,0:11:19.000
We are the first society to be living in a world

0:11:19.000,0:11:22.000
where we don't worship anything other than ourselves.

0:11:22.000,0:11:24.000
We think very highly of ourselves, and so we should.

0:11:24.000,0:11:27.000
We've put people on the moon. We've done all sorts of extraordinary things.

0:11:27.000,0:11:29.000
And so we tend to worship ourselves.

0:11:29.000,0:11:31.000
Our heroes are human heroes.

0:11:31.000,0:11:33.000
That's a very new situation.

0:11:33.000,0:11:35.000
Most other societies have had, right at their center,

0:11:35.000,0:11:37.000
the worship of something transcendent: a god,

0:11:37.000,0:11:39.000
a spirit, a natural force, the universe,

0:11:39.000,0:11:42.000
whatever it is, something else that is being worshiped.

0:11:42.000,0:11:44.000
We've slightly lost the habit of doing that,

0:11:44.000,0:11:46.000
which is, I think, why we're particularly drawn to nature.

0:11:46.000,0:11:49.000
Not for the sake of our health, though it's often presented that way,

0:11:49.000,0:11:53.000
but because it's an escape from the human anthill.

0:11:53.000,0:11:55.000
It's an escape from our own competition,

0:11:55.000,0:11:57.000
and our own dramas.

0:11:57.000,0:11:59.000
And that's why we enjoy looking at glaciers and oceans,

0:11:59.000,0:12:03.000
and contemplating the Earth from outside its perimeters, etc.

0:12:03.000,0:12:07.000
We like to feel in contact with something that is non-human,

0:12:07.000,0:12:11.000
and that is so deeply important to us.

0:12:11.000,0:12:14.000
What I think I've been talking about really is success and failure.

0:12:14.000,0:12:17.000
And one of the interesting things about success

0:12:17.000,0:12:19.000
is that we think we know what it means.

0:12:19.000,0:12:21.000
If I said to you that there is somebody behind the screen

0:12:21.000,0:12:24.000
who is very very successful, certain ideas would immediately come to mind.

0:12:24.000,0:12:26.000
You would think that person might have made a lot of money,

0:12:26.000,0:12:29.000
achieved renown in some field.

0:12:29.000,0:12:31.000
My own theory of success -- and I'm somebody

0:12:31.000,0:12:34.000
who is very interested in success. I really want to be successful.

0:12:34.000,0:12:36.000
I'm always thinking, "How could I be more successful?"

0:12:36.000,0:12:38.000
But as I get older, I'm also very nuanced

0:12:38.000,0:12:40.000
about what that word "success" might mean.

0:12:40.000,0:12:42.000
Here's an insight that I've had about success.

0:12:42.000,0:12:45.000
You can't be successful at everything.

0:12:45.000,0:12:47.000
We hear a lot of talk about work-life balance.

0:12:47.000,0:12:50.000
Nonsense. You can't have it all. You can't.

0:12:50.000,0:12:52.000
So any vision of success

0:12:52.000,0:12:54.000
has to admit what it's losing out on,

0:12:54.000,0:12:56.000
where the element of loss is.

0:12:56.000,0:12:59.000
I think any wise life will accept,

0:12:59.000,0:13:02.000
as I say, that there is going to be an element where we are not succeeding.

0:13:02.000,0:13:04.000
Thing about a successful life

0:13:04.000,0:13:06.000
is, a lot of the time, our ideas

0:13:06.000,0:13:09.000
of what it would mean to live successfully are not our own.

0:13:09.000,0:13:11.000
They are sucked in from other people:

0:13:11.000,0:13:13.000
chiefly, if you're a man, your father,

0:13:13.000,0:13:15.000
and if you're a woman, your mother.

0:13:15.000,0:13:18.000
Psychoanalysis has been drumming home this message for about 80 years.

0:13:18.000,0:13:21.000
No one is quite listening hard enough, but I very much believe that that's true.

0:13:21.000,0:13:23.000
And we also suck in messages

0:13:23.000,0:13:25.000
from everything from the television, to advertising,

0:13:25.000,0:13:27.000
to marketing, etc.

0:13:27.000,0:13:29.000
These are hugely powerful forces

0:13:29.000,0:13:33.000
that define what we want and how we view ourselves.

0:13:33.000,0:13:36.000
When we're told that banking is a very respectable profession

0:13:36.000,0:13:38.000
a lot of us want to go into banking.

0:13:38.000,0:13:41.000
When banking is no longer so respectable, we lose interest in banking.

0:13:41.000,0:13:44.000
We are highly open to suggestion.

0:13:44.000,0:13:47.000
So what I want to argue for is not that we should give up

0:13:47.000,0:13:49.000
on our ideas of success,

0:13:49.000,0:13:51.000
but we should make sure that they are our own.

0:13:51.000,0:13:53.000
We should focus in on our ideas

0:13:53.000,0:13:56.000
and make sure that we own them,

0:13:56.000,0:13:58.000
that we are truly the authors of our own ambitions.

0:13:58.000,0:14:00.000
Because it's bad enough, not getting what you want,

0:14:00.000,0:14:03.000
but it's even worse to have an idea

0:14:03.000,0:14:06.000
of what it is you want and find out at the end of a journey,

0:14:06.000,0:14:09.000
that it isn't, in fact, what you wanted all along.

0:14:09.000,0:14:11.000
So I'm going to end it there.

0:14:11.000,0:14:14.000
But what I really want to stress is

0:14:14.000,0:14:16.000
by all means, success, yes.

0:14:16.000,0:14:18.000
But let's accept the strangeness of some of our ideas.

0:14:18.000,0:14:21.000
Let's probe away at our notions of success.

0:14:21.000,0:14:25.000
Let's make sure our ideas of success are truly our own.

0:14:25.000,0:14:27.000
Thank you very much.

0:14:27.000,0:14:43.000
(Applause)

0:14:43.000,0:14:45.000
Chris Anderson: That was fascinating. How do you reconcile

0:14:45.000,0:14:50.000
this idea of someone being --

0:14:50.000,0:14:53.000
it being bad to think of someone as a loser

0:14:53.000,0:14:57.000
with the idea, that a lot of people like, of seizing control of your life.

0:14:57.000,0:15:00.000
And that a society that encourages that

0:15:00.000,0:15:03.000
perhaps has to have some winners and losers.

0:15:03.000,0:15:06.000
Alain de Botton: Yes. I think it's merely the randomness

0:15:06.000,0:15:08.000
of the winning and losing process that I wanted to stress.

0:15:08.000,0:15:10.000
Because the emphasis nowadays is so much

0:15:10.000,0:15:12.000
on the justice of everything,

0:15:12.000,0:15:14.000
and politicians always talk about justice.

0:15:14.000,0:15:17.000
Now I am a firm believer in justice, I just think that it is impossible.

0:15:17.000,0:15:19.000
So we should do everything we can,

0:15:19.000,0:15:21.000
we should do everything we can to pursue it.

0:15:21.000,0:15:23.000
But at the end of the day we should always remember

0:15:23.000,0:15:26.000
that whoever is facing us, whatever has happened in their lives,

0:15:26.000,0:15:29.000
there will be a strong element of the haphazard.

0:15:29.000,0:15:31.000
And it's that that I'm trying to leave room for.

0:15:31.000,0:15:33.000
Because otherwise it can get quite claustrophobic.

0:15:33.000,0:15:35.000
CA: I mean, do you believe that you can combine

0:15:35.000,0:15:37.000
your kind of kinder, gentler philosophy of work

0:15:37.000,0:15:41.000
with a successful economy?

0:15:41.000,0:15:43.000
Or do you think that you can't?

0:15:43.000,0:15:45.000
But it doesn't matter that much that we're putting too much emphasis on that?

0:15:45.000,0:15:48.000
AB: The nightmare thought

0:15:48.000,0:15:52.000
is that frightening people is the best way to get work out of them,

0:15:52.000,0:15:55.000
and that somehow the crueler the environment

0:15:55.000,0:15:57.000
the more people will rise to the challenge.

0:15:57.000,0:16:01.000
You want to think, who would you like as your ideal dad?

0:16:01.000,0:16:04.000
And your ideal dad is somebody who is tough but gentle.

0:16:04.000,0:16:06.000
And it's a very hard line to make.

0:16:06.000,0:16:10.000
We need fathers, as it were, the exemplary father figures in society,

0:16:10.000,0:16:12.000
avoiding the two extremes,

0:16:12.000,0:16:16.000
which is the authoritarian, disciplinarian, on the one hand,

0:16:16.000,0:16:20.000
and on the other, the lax, no rules option.

0:16:20.000,0:16:22.000
CA: Alain de Botton.

0:16:22.000,0:16:24.000
AB: Thank you very much.

0:16:24.000,0:16:34.000
(Applause)