“Magnificence of the Tsars”

The most interesting aspect of the V&A’s “Magnificence of the Tsars” exhibit is its focus on men’s imperial dress. However, having visited St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace, the exhibit was anti-climactic; not only had we seen royal dress in Russia, we had seen it in the royal family’s majestic residence. The exhibit’s captions were instructive not only of the style of royal imperial dress, but also as reminders of the vulnerable nature of royal rule. Power was inherited, passed on among family members like a family heirloom. It’s no wonder the lack of meritocracy and widespread economic disparity, the royal family’s focus on ceremony and imitating European royal rule, gave way to revolution.

The School of Life: Punctuality

It works out well that M and I place an equally significant emphasis on timeliness. Few people know their friendship/acquaintanceship has come under “review” in light of their lack of punctuality. Often is the case that a friend’s chronic lateness has been our rationale for not making plans with them at all.

Timeliness, and my fastidiousness to it, seems an altogether “unfashionable” value in the post-modern world where social commitments are “scheduled” hours beforehand vis-a-vis mis-spelled texts; I quote the verb schedule because plans can “legitimately” be changed with a follow-up text even one hour before the rendezvous time. Tardiness is now excused as long as the late-comer has the “respect” for texting/ringing at or even after the appointed time.

One might guess my obsession with timeliness (for myself and for others meeting me) is the hard-wired consequence of years of congregation attendance and Bible reading, regular Sunday schooling and youth group participation. But, alas, my fastidiousness has no easy explanation; I was neither raised religiously nor conditioned to think that tardiness was a sin. Geoff Dyer, the first speaker invited to provide a sermon at the “The School of Life”, does not provide an answer the question, “Why are some people punctual and others chronically late?” although he does suggest that maybe one’s delivery time at birth, might foreshadow his or her proclivity towards punctuality or tardiness.

During my reading and research of ADB’s work, I came across his “School of Life” where monthly sermons are provided to appeal to those interested in morals, ethics, codes of living and the like without having to give up secularism, inclusiveness, and the habit of questioning authority. Geoff Dyer’s November ’08 sermon on “Punctuality” is available for free. The sermon opens with an eleven-minute recording of Rev. A.W. Nix’s sermon “Black Diamond Express Train to Hell” which GD uses as a jumping point to discuss the consequences of being late. In the end, however, GD posits that although tardy people attempt to effuse an air of glamour in being late, they, in fact, are really bores, spending most of their time rectifying the consequences of being disorganised; carefree = careless.

The sermon’s final conclusion is that “punctuality is about time”. Punctuality is about keeping time, being in the appropriate place with the appropriate people at the right hour without overstaying one’s welcome and making time for our other commitments as well, whether it be a commitment to another friend, one’s work, or oneself.

http://www.theschooloflife.com/sermons/punctuality.aspx

Alain De Botton

Last summer, in the Malpensa airport’s sole bookstore, I picked up a copy of “Status Anxiety” (2004), the only ADB book on offer.  I had read reviews of the author’s “The Architecture of Happiness” (2006) which was on my Amazon Wish List, but I knew little of the author and his previous works. Browsing the book’s opening pages, I learned that ADB is a living Swiss-born philosopher educated at Cambridge and Harvard who ponders the psychic conundrums of modern life in the western, developed world. ADB’s books, as I later found after reading four them in quick succession, draw heavily from the experience of living in the world’s most competitive, capitalism- and consumer-driven cities in the world: New York, London and Paris, with scattered references to Berlin, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.  City life plays a prominent role in these texts which examine and hypothesize the frenzied tensions which shoot like sharp, poison-dipped arrows at the city dweller’s mind.

ADB’s books posit that urban life—cities’ architectural evolution, fashion trends, and technological advances—play a significant role in the shaping of the modern psyche. He argues that the significance of the environment in which we live cannot be overstated when getting to the core of understanding life’s modern dilemmas. However, what differentiates ADB’s books from his early-twentieth-century philosophical predecessor Thorstein Veblen (whose “Conspicuous Consumption” ranks as one of my all-time favourites) is that ADB proposes antidotes to life’s modern-day psychic challenges.  All his texts provide an easily-accessible historical rendering of the problem at hand interspersed with images (photographs, advertisements, cartoons, etc.) to illustrate and provide “evidence” of the tensions at play.  In addition to city life, images play a significant role in directing sub-conscious messaging to city dwellers.

“Status Anxiety” is an engaging introduction to ADB’s work.  In it, ADB provides a fun and interesting-to-read history of the development of the luxury goods market, a direct consequence of the Industrial Revolution’s ability to manufacture goods quickly and the cross-country transport system (trains).  Interwoven in his historical discussion is exposition of the individual’s central role in society and how society’s response to the individual shapes his/her psyche. A cultural shift occurs with mass production whereby individuals’ talents and skills are no longer what define him or her; rather, it is what he or she owns. However, ADB suggests that philosophy, art, political engagement, religion and the ability to question authority, that which cannot be replicated by machinery, are the solutions among which humans can choose to combat insecurities inspired by a consumption-driven society.

Less engaging but still insightful is ADB’s “The Art of Travel” (2002), an exposition on why we travel and how to get the most out of travel. Much of the book’s discussion is also applicable to looking at and understanding art. ADB differentiates looking from noticing, seeing from possessing. Through drawing or writing about what we witness when we travel, by better understanding the construction of the place that surrounds us, we benefit more from new scenery. Humility, too, is crucial in extracting what’s unique about a travel destination.

“The Architecture of Happiness” argues that the seemingly bourgeois focus on home furnishings and the construction of one’s house are essential in the pursuit of happiness rather than merely a luxury for the wealthy to enjoy. Without referring to Malcolm G.s’ “broken-glass” theory, ADB explores the significance of design and what design means. Much like a literary critic might prepare a “close reading” of a novel, ADB interprets various landscapes and architectural styles (colonials to ranches, Tudors to McMansions). He discusses lighting, roofing, and what might seem like other tedious architectural details in order to highlight that where one lives effects how one lives. Ultimately, while we may never meet the ideals to which our homes aspire, we are sure to come close to reaching them if we these values inspire the surroundings in which we live.

Perhaps the easiest and most fun to read of ADB’s books is “The Consolations of Philosophy” (2000), a discussion of how the western canon’s greatest philosophers, the way they lived and their works, position them as role models for living in the modern world. The most interesting aspects of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche’s lives are described in detail and major works are presented in an accessible fashion in order to enlighten readers about how some of the greatest minds grappled philosophically with political and emotional hurdles.

In a world where religion is increasingly discredited for having the answers and instead ascribed as the central reason for genocide, war and terrorism, an alternative form of faith which emphasizes morality, benevolence, peace, and community while directing our attention beyond the consumerism, isolation and individualism, is much needed. ADB’s larger project, to provide a secular, academically-rigorous and practical way of living simply and more fully while honing one’s ability to critique the world around him/her, may be the beginning of a secular movement towards a new morality grounded in critical thinking and philosophical insight. To learn more about ADB and his work, see his website: http://www.alaindebotton.com/