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)