1 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:14,165 The past 200 years in the West 2 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:18,040 have seen staggering increases in wealth and economic opportunity. 3 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:23,240 And yet, there have been no comparable increases in our level of happiness. 4 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:27,965 Despite being so much richer than a few generations ago, 5 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,400 are often more anxious about our own importance and achievements 6 00:00:31,435 --> 00:00:33,240 than our grandparents were. 7 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:37,760 I call this modern state of restlessness and dissatisfaction, 8 00:00:37,795 --> 00:00:39,320 "Status Anxiety". 9 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,760 I want to explain where I think much of it has come from, 10 00:00:42,795 --> 00:00:44,565 how it affects our lives 11 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:46,840 and what I believe we could do about it. 12 00:00:48,160 --> 00:00:51,560 STATUS 13 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:59,320 If we are surprised that being richer hasn't made us happy and secure, 14 00:00:59,355 --> 00:01:03,480 it's because we don't understand the psychology of satisfaction. 15 00:01:04,320 --> 00:01:05,805 When do we feel that we have enough? 16 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:08,760 What enables us to feel prosperous and content? 17 00:01:08,795 --> 00:01:11,560 Chiefly, a comparison with other people. 18 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:14,760 But, it's not good enough to compare ourselves to people 19 00:01:14,795 --> 00:01:17,200 who are very remote from us in time and place. 20 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:20,365 It's not going to help anyone feel very rich to be told 21 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:25,400 they have infinitely more money than one of their mediaeval ancestors who lived in a mud-walled cottage. 22 00:01:25,435 --> 00:01:29,080 We only feel content when we compare ourselves to people who are like us, 23 00:01:29,115 --> 00:01:30,240 our friends and colleagues, 24 00:01:30,275 --> 00:01:31,280 our neighbours. 25 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:35,680 In short, the sense of being a success is all relative. 26 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:42,960 No one spends much time resenting the Queen or Bill Gates. 27 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:45,800 But we are liable to get extremely resentful 28 00:01:45,835 --> 00:01:48,205 if someone we think is basically just like us, 29 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,840 moves into a bigger house or gets a slightly better job. 30 00:01:51,875 --> 00:01:55,880 We most envy people who we take to be our equals. 31 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:00,480 The modern world is based around the idea 32 00:02:00,515 --> 00:02:02,597 that we are all, essentially, equal. 33 00:02:02,632 --> 00:02:04,645 Not necessarily financially equal, 34 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,720 but equal in terms of rights and opportunities. 35 00:02:07,755 --> 00:02:09,045 It's a lovely idea 36 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:11,920 which brings with it one nasty side effect. 37 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:14,760 In a world in which you could believe that those at the top 38 00:02:14,795 --> 00:02:17,525 belonged to an inherently superior caste, 39 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:21,000 you didn't need to feel humiliated by anything you didn't have. 40 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:23,720 You might detest those who had more than you, 41 00:02:23,755 --> 00:02:26,240 but you didn't need to feel ashamed or anxious. 42 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,240 But in a world in which everyone is supposed to be equal, 43 00:02:30,275 --> 00:02:32,957 but where there is still a lot of inequality around, 44 00:02:32,992 --> 00:02:35,605 it's hard not to take the achievements of others 45 00:02:35,640 --> 00:02:39,760 as an implicit reproach for everything you don't have and haven't done. 46 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:45,885 The best place to go to understand all this, 47 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:50,880 is the country where the idea of equality first took hold some 200 years ago. 48 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:52,040 America. 49 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:56,160 Young, ready and hungry… 50 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:08,920 In 1776, America had a revolution which changed the world. 51 00:03:08,955 --> 00:03:12,000 Help us to discover the secrets to our dream… 52 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,520 The new democracy abolished the rigid, class-based hierarchies of Europe. 53 00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:21,040 Say to yourself, every day "it's possible"… 54 00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:26,120 From the first, this basic sense of equality energised America. 55 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:28,525 But it also, quite unintentionally, 56 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:32,480 increased Americans' anxieties about what their true place was. 57 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:36,200 You can't tell me nothing about this subject, because I was poor. 58 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:38,480 But I was blessed and I'm not poor now. 59 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:43,040 Their anxieties were destined to become our anxieties. 60 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:54,560 The person who first, and perhaps best, understood the problem of modern equality 61 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:58,560 was a young French aristocrat called Alexis de Tocquville. 62 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,680 In 1831, he came to America in order to study what he called 63 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:06,960 "the future shape and temperament of the world". 64 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:13,365 When de Tocquville travelled to America, 65 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:17,240 the Europe he was leaving behind was still essentially an aristocratic society, 66 00:04:17,275 --> 00:04:18,965 run along feudal lines. 67 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,440 This was a world in which you tended to accept the status that you had been born into. 68 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:24,645 But in America everything was different. 69 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:27,520 This was a democracy and here you could change your status, 70 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:29,560 according to your luck or your talent. 71 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:32,680 De Tocquville, writing about his journey later, wrote 72 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:35,600 that what he had come to see in America was the future, 73 00:04:35,635 --> 00:04:37,040 and what he saw when he got there 74 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:40,080 left him both impressed and frightened for all of us. 75 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:47,160 De Tocquville distilled the experiences of his nine-month journey into a book 76 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:49,680 called "Democracy in America". 77 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:53,960 Its eerie, following his footsteps 170 years later, 78 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:56,320 to see just how prescient he was. 79 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:00,640 He foresaw the problems that would arise 80 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:04,960 when the old social hierarchies based on class were abolished. 81 00:05:05,280 --> 00:05:06,560 There would be no limits 82 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:09,320 to what we could legitimately expect from life. 83 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:14,520 De Tocquville was struck at how wealthy ordinary Americans were. 84 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:19,200 They enjoyed a standard of living far superior to that of their counterparts in old Europe. 85 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:20,840 But de Tocquville noticed something else, 86 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:22,200 perhaps more interesting. 87 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:25,720 That, despite their affluence, they constantly wanted ever more 88 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:29,280 and felt great envy at anyone who had something that they didn't. 89 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:53,200 In a chapter of his book entitled 90 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:57,880 "why the Americans are often so restless in the midst of their prosperity", 91 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:04,000 Du Tocville analysed the relationship between equality and a gnawing sense of envy. 92 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:12,360 So where are we now? What is this house? 93 00:06:12,395 --> 00:06:13,960 This is the Delaware model. 94 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,680 Which is…? How does it fit in to the range of models available? 95 00:06:19,715 --> 00:06:22,040 It is a very popular model. 96 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:28,800 I would say that this model is on the larger end. 97 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:32,160 Not our smallest and not our largest… 98 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:34,080 And does it come with all this furniture? 99 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:51,720 The young Frenchman was immediately intrigued by the houses Americans built. 100 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:54,580 "I was surprised to perceive, along the shore, 101 00:06:54,615 --> 00:06:57,000 a number of little palaces of white marble, 102 00:06:57,200 --> 00:06:59,720 several of which were of ancient architecture. 103 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:02,680 When I went the next day to inspect more closely, 104 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:05,360 I found that the walls were of whitewashed brick 105 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:07,320 and the columns of painted wood. 106 00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:09,480 In the confusion of all ranks, 107 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,320 everyone hopes to appear what he is not". 108 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:15,920 And this is the, you say, the colonial style? 109 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:20,240 This is …this is a pretty traditional two-storey colonial with… 110 00:07:20,275 --> 00:07:21,520 Is that a Doric column? 111 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:27,980 Those are our decorated, decorator columns to enhance the room, 112 00:07:28,015 --> 00:07:33,640 where we put the mirror back there which is also decorator touch. 113 00:07:33,675 --> 00:07:34,360 Right. 114 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:37,640 De Tocquville said 115 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,920 "when inequality is the general rule in society, 116 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:44,160 the greatest inequalities attract no attention. 117 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:46,600 But when everything is more-or-less level, 118 00:07:46,840 --> 00:07:48,880 the slightest variation is noticed. 119 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:52,140 That's the reason for the strange melancholy 120 00:07:52,175 --> 00:07:54,720 often haunting the inhabitants of democracies 121 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:56,400 in the midst of abundance. 122 00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:59,880 And of that disgust with life, sometimes gripping them, 123 00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:02,720 even in calm and easy circumstances. " 124 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:04,240 Is this real stone? 125 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,240 That is called a nonstandard option. 126 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,040 Joannie Hartley works for Washington Homes. 127 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:15,120 Their slogan is "Making the American Dream affordable". 128 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:16,925 Is that a standard piece, do you know? 129 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:21,560 Yes. Oh, no-no-no, above the door, that is a decorator item. 130 00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:30,520 In a society of equals, 131 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:33,560 it is natural for people to want what others have. 132 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:35,920 Between 1970 and now, 133 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:41,160 the proportion of Americans who defined the things in this store as "necessities" 134 00:08:41,195 --> 00:08:42,400 rose continuously. 135 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:46,760 3% in 1970 thought a second television essential. 136 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:49,360 Now it is 75%. 137 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:51,440 There have been equivalent increases 138 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:55,080 in the numbers feeling they need the other products here at Best Buy. 139 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:04,000 This relentless process from luxury to decency to psychological necessity, 140 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:05,840 had been noticed by de Tocquville. 141 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:07,440 He thought it explained 142 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:09,600 why the Americans' greater wealth 143 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:11,840 would not necessarily make them happier. 144 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:17,080 The reason was that all barriers to social expectation had been removed 145 00:09:17,115 --> 00:09:18,320 in the United States. 146 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:20,080 "In America", wrote de Tocquville, 147 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:24,480 "I never met a citizen too poor not to be able to glance with hope 148 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:27,000 and envy at the pleasures of the rich". 149 00:09:36,400 --> 00:09:37,880 Move into a better house, 150 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:39,640 get a better car, 151 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:41,600 buy better clothes… 152 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:49,080 Poor citizens, de Tocquville noticed, 153 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:51,320 compare themselves with rich ones 154 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:53,120 and trust that they, too, 155 00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:55,360 will one day follow in their footsteps. 156 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:01,040 My son wants to look just like everybody else. 157 00:10:01,640 --> 00:10:05,040 If they are sporting Michael Jordans, he has got to sport them, too. 158 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:09,120 So, if I say it 'no I can't get them for you', 159 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:10,805 what is this child going to do? 160 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:13,000 It is going to go out there and rob somebody? 161 00:10:13,035 --> 00:10:15,880 Maybe steal, kill, whatever, to get it? 162 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:22,920 Some people from humble backgrounds do become very rich in America. 163 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,840 But, unlike the poor of aristocratic societies, 164 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:30,440 low status Americans are prone to view their condition 165 00:10:30,680 --> 00:10:34,000 as nothing less than a betrayal of their expectations. 166 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:42,920 The differences between democratic and aristocratic societies 167 00:10:42,955 --> 00:10:45,285 came out particularly well, de Tocquville thought, 168 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:49,280 in the different mindsets of servants under the two different systems. 169 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:52,205 In aristocratic societies, de Tocquville argued 170 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:55,360 that servants tended to accept their fates with good grace, 171 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:57,720 they didn't feel there was anything humiliating 172 00:10:57,755 --> 00:10:59,920 in being a restaurant manager or waiting on tables. 173 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:01,880 In democratic societies, however, 174 00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:04,560 the atmosphere of the press and public opinion, 175 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:07,800 relentlessly suggested to all citizens that they could become 176 00:11:07,835 --> 00:11:09,560 anything on earth that they wanted to be. 177 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:15,400 However, as time passed, and the majority of people failed to realise their dreams, 178 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:17,485 they fell prey to a kind of bitterness. 179 00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:22,240 And a sense of despair and the hatred of themselves, and their masters, grew fierce. 180 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:29,680 I met Blaise Pugh at Freddie's, 181 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:31,480 the restaurant where he works. 182 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:34,360 Though it is just around the corner from the Pentagon, 183 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:36,040 it has a 'Key West' feel. 184 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:40,360 But it is not where Blaise wants to be. 185 00:11:42,560 --> 00:11:45,920 He has set his sights on being a TV chatshow host. 186 00:11:46,680 --> 00:11:48,725 I am a fun person, I am a lot of fun. 187 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:51,560 I would like to be on television every damned day. 188 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:53,080 Really? Every day? 189 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:53,960 Every night? 190 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:54,645 Every night. 191 00:11:54,680 --> 00:11:55,680 With your own show? 192 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:58,640 Anywhere between nine and 11 would be fine. 193 00:11:58,675 --> 00:12:00,720 No no no you can't sit there…. 194 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:03,440 I need to spray it with Lysol. 195 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,520 We had a naked model in here this morning who had her err… 196 00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:09,405 her naked crotch on there. 197 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:11,680 Why do you need to spray? I don't mind. 198 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:13,640 You don't know where she was last night. 199 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:15,080 I have an idea. 200 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:17,680 Blaise's agent, Dorothy, 201 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:19,600 had got wind of the job for him. 202 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:20,920 I rushed round. 203 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:23,720 Blaise is here today to do a head shot. 204 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:26,640 He has got a casting call in New York next week. 205 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:29,260 If they like his look, which we hope they do. 206 00:12:29,295 --> 00:12:31,680 They're looking for a character type of dude. 207 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:36,720 And if they like him it's a possible $40,000 job. 208 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:42,780 What is your ambition Blaise? 209 00:12:42,815 --> 00:12:44,000 Just to be instantly recognised. 210 00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:45,200 But for what? 211 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:47,000 Famous for being famous. 212 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:49,040 But not necessarily for anything in particular? 213 00:12:49,075 --> 00:12:49,925 Exactly. 214 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:51,245 Just famous for being famous. 215 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:53,240 And Dorothy, do you think that could happen? 216 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:54,280 Oh, absolutely. 217 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:55,880 Are you guys familiar with Dateline? 218 00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:59,320 They voted him personality of the week, 219 00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:00,760 eight years ago. 220 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:02,720 Failure is not an option. 221 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:05,860 Somebody once said to me "what happens if you don't... " 222 00:13:05,895 --> 00:13:08,200 Well I won't know because I'll probably be dead trying. 223 00:13:08,235 --> 00:13:09,840 Do your Sean Connery. 224 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:12,960 Well, it is been a while, let's see… 225 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:15,320 Miss Moneypenny….. 226 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:37,480 You did a terrific job. 227 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:42,280 When I next met Blaise, he prove difficult to recognise at first. 228 00:13:42,560 --> 00:13:44,880 Roncom is offering 20% off today. 229 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:49,880 Roncom is having a sale and I'm just out promoting Roncom…. 230 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:58,360 The rigid, hierarchical system of almost every Western society 231 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:02,240 until the 18th century was unjust in a thousand ways. 232 00:14:02,275 --> 00:14:04,400 Roncom to its having a sale across the street… 233 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:09,320 But it did offer those on the lower rungs one notable freedom. 234 00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:12,560 The freedom not to have to compare their achievements 235 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:14,920 with so many more successful peoples, 236 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:17,760 and so find themselves inadequate as a result. 237 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:19,720 Roncom is having a sale today... 238 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,240 Do ever think, when you are doing this kind of work, 239 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:24,360 do you ever sort of think, 240 00:14:24,760 --> 00:14:26,480 you know, maybe I should just accept 241 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:29,280 that maybe I won't make it to the next level. 242 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:29,920 No. 243 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:31,600 And that maybe I should just accept that, 244 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:34,600 you know, life in the restaurant business is my lot? 245 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:36,160 But it's not where I'm supposed to be. 246 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:38,760 But do you ever despair, do you ever just say, 247 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:42,640 " I should just accept, really, that what I am is a restaurant manager. 248 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:46,885 I am not Johnny Carson I am not David Letterman, I'm a sponge"? 249 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:49,360 Well, no, you see I can't, because I am, they just don't know it yet. 250 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:54,960 We are all more like Blaise than we care to admit. 251 00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:59,440 We torment ourselves with comparisons between our lives 252 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:02,600 and the lives of those a few rungs up the ladder. 253 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:05,520 It obviously does not make us any happier. 254 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:10,320 Why are we so unable to curtail our painful aspirations? 255 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:12,680 Roncom is having a sale across the street... 256 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:22,480 It isn't just comparisons with others which stop us feeling content. 257 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:25,440 It is also what we demand of ourselves. 258 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:27,280 So find some reasons 259 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,440 that can keep you strong when you want to give up. 260 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:33,000 We are all now expected to succeed. 261 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:37,800 Here's what I want you to repeat after me please with power and conviction. Say, "it's possible". 262 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:42,280 Les Brown is one of America's top motivational speakers. 263 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:44,920 He was flying-in that evening to meet me. 264 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:50,080 Something about the prospect made me feel lethargic, even desperate. 265 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:52,480 I said hello, Mr Butterball, how are you? 266 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:55,840 Les, how are you? How was your flight? 267 00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:59,000 Young, ready and hungry…. 268 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:01,320 That's how I got into it, because I love connecting people. 269 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:02,040 Right. 270 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:05,560 One of the, sort of, paradoxical things of watching your tapes, 271 00:16:05,680 --> 00:16:08,840 reading your material is that it's incredibly optimistic. 272 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:11,760 But watching it has kind of made me feel that I'm kind of a loser 273 00:16:11,795 --> 00:16:14,520 because I haven't achieved as much as I might have done. 274 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:16,800 I do that. I don't want you to sleep at night. 275 00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:19,480 Particularly if you have not been living up to your potential. 276 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:23,440 Does it frustrate when you meet people who you feel are not living to their potential? 277 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:24,680 Oh, absolutely not. 278 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:27,400 When I see those kind of people I look at them, and I check them out, 279 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:29,680 I see what kind of physical fitness they are in. 280 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:31,800 They perhaps would be very good in cleaning my house, 281 00:16:31,835 --> 00:16:32,937 washing my dishes, 282 00:16:32,972 --> 00:16:34,040 driving me around, 283 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:36,480 you know, cleaning my clothes, cutting my grass. 284 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:38,800 Some people choose a life of mediocrity. 285 00:16:38,835 --> 00:16:40,000 That's your choice. 286 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:43,440 There are people who decide "I don't want to do anything but what I'm doing. 287 00:16:43,475 --> 00:16:45,400 I want to do drugs, I want to be an alcoholic, 288 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:48,240 I want to be worthless, I want to be no good, 289 00:16:48,275 --> 00:16:51,000 I want to be a criminal.. " People make choices. 290 00:16:51,035 --> 00:16:52,525 But what about those people who say, 291 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:56,005 "I don't want to be a criminal, I want to be chief executive, etc," 292 00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:58,600 but they happen to be a criminal they or they happen to be a drug addict. 293 00:16:58,635 --> 00:17:01,200 They don't happen to be. They have chosen to become that. 294 00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:03,520 So whatever you are, whatever you are in life, 295 00:17:03,555 --> 00:17:04,440 you have chosen it. 296 00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:08,040 Wherever you are at some point in time, you have made an appointment to be there. 297 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:10,340 But with this very tough philosophy one could say, 298 00:17:10,375 --> 00:17:12,520 that actually, you have been a very privileged man. 299 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:13,525 Privileged? 300 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:14,360 You have been a very privileged man. 301 00:17:14,395 --> 00:17:15,365 How so? 302 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:17,520 Well, you were born into a loving family, 303 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:18,920 you were born with gifts, 304 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:20,160 a gift for public speaking 305 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:22,360 a very quick mind, a very intelligent mind. 306 00:17:22,395 --> 00:17:23,200 These are gifts. 307 00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:26,240 I didn't start out like this. I was not an orator. 308 00:17:26,360 --> 00:17:29,880 I trained myself. I never had any college training. 309 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:33,080 I saw a guy speaking and I said 'Hey, I think I would like to do that'. 310 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:34,640 How much money have you made, Les? 311 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:36,600 Over 37 million dollars. 312 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:37,800 In how long? 313 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:38,560 18 years. 314 00:17:42,120 --> 00:17:44,560 You've got to continue to work on yourself personally, 315 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:46,760 to work on yourself professionally, 316 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:49,320 you have got to be hungry. 317 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,060 My basic feeling with Les is that he is very inspiring, obviously, 318 00:17:54,095 --> 00:17:56,960 you come away from his company feeling like this really is someone 319 00:17:56,995 --> 00:17:59,957 who can help you to make your, life make your millions, etc. 320 00:17:59,992 --> 00:18:02,920 But I suppose there remains a dark undercurrent of all this. 321 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:05,605 That it raises your anxiety levels. 322 00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:07,520 You think, "I should be so much more than I am". 323 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:12,560 And in many ways, I think that life simply isn't as flexible as Les makes out. 324 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:18,960 And I think that the old resignation to one's condition 325 00:18:18,995 --> 00:18:20,520 is obviously negative in all sorts of ways, 326 00:18:20,555 --> 00:18:22,205 but it can also be quite calming. 327 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:26,320 It helps you to accommodate yourself with what could be 328 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:30,200 quite harsh and quite unbudgeable conditions of life. 329 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,005 So, I think there is real benefit, sometimes, 330 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:39,320 to an approach that sees life as essentially a cruel joke. 331 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:55,040 Our expectations for our lives have grown exponentially in the democratic age. 332 00:18:55,600 --> 00:18:59,600 A philosopher who thought deeply about what that might mean for human happiness 333 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:03,245 was John Jacques Rousseau an eccentric, shrill 334 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:06,520 but unsettlingly persuasive 18th century Frenchman. 335 00:19:09,120 --> 00:19:12,120 Rousseau had a fascinating idea about what it is to be wealthy. 336 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:15,240 Being wealthy isn't just a question of having lots of money. 337 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:17,400 It's a question of having what we want. 338 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:20,400 Wealth isn't an absolute, it's relative to desire. 339 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:23,160 Every time we seek something that we can't afford, 340 00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:24,640 we can be counted as poor, 341 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:26,920 however much money we may actually have. 342 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:29,760 And every time we are satisfied with what we have, 343 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:31,320 we can be counted as rich, 344 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:33,760 however little we may actually possess. 345 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,160 There are two ways to make people richer, reasoned Rousseau: 346 00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:45,120 To give them more money, or to restrain their desires. 347 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:50,040 Modern societies have succeeded spectacularly at the first option, 348 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:52,920 but by continuously inflaming our appetites, 349 00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:54,440 they have at the same time, 350 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:57,760 helped to negate their own most impressive achievements. 351 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,760 This analysis led Rousseau to one of his most provocative ideas, 352 00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:07,560 his concept of 'the noble savage'. 353 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:14,480 Rousseau argued that the so-called 'uncivilised' peoples who lived in the forests, 354 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:16,960 in the language of the day, "savages" 355 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:22,160 were not just morally better than the corrupted inhabitants of cities like Washington DC, 356 00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:24,200 they might also be happier. 357 00:20:26,120 --> 00:20:31,080 Modern societies might actually leave us feeling more deprived than primitive ones, 358 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:34,120 where people contented themselves, in Rousseau's words 359 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:39,840 "playing with crude musical instruments, or using sharp-edged stones to make a fishing canoe". 360 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:58,520 I think it is possibly quite easy to dismiss Rousseau's ideas as a piece of romantic fantasy. 361 00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:02,245 But if so many people in the 18th century took these ideas so seriously, 362 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:07,160 I think it's because they had before them one stark example of many of its apparent truths 363 00:21:07,360 --> 00:21:10,080 in the shape of the fate of the North American Indians. 364 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:28,040 Here's a picture of my grandfather and my grandmother and my aunt. 365 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:32,080 Warren Cook is deputy chief of what remains of the Pamunkey Tribe, 366 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:36,840 once led by a mighty Powhatan, king of Virginia and father of Pocahontas. 367 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:39,840 It is just another picture of my aunt. 368 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:44,480 I don't know why she has a gun, but, probably to get an Englishman. 369 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:53,280 Reports of native American life from the 16th century onwards 370 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:55,760 had described it as materially simple, 371 00:21:55,795 --> 00:21:57,560 but psychologically rewarding. 372 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:03,120 Communities were close-knit, egalitarian, religious, playful and marshall. 373 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:08,440 Well we have here how the people sort- of dressed and what they sort-of looked like. 374 00:22:08,475 --> 00:22:10,280 These are called John White's Drawings. 375 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,720 And then, of course, a little bit of their music and their flutes and the rattlers. 376 00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:17,000 So, incredibly simple instruments. 377 00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:20,800 Of course, you are talking a very primitive people, of course. 378 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:25,200 Within only a few decades of the arrival of the White Man, 379 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:28,320 the technology and luxury of European industry 380 00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:30,360 had awed the Native Americans. 381 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,560 When the English came over, everything of course changed. 382 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:39,360 The native people wanted the thing that the English people had. 383 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:42,440 Do you think before the English came, 384 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:44,925 they were more or less happy with what they had. 385 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,440 I mean they had led a very simple life, what is your sense of… 386 00:22:47,475 --> 00:22:49,640 Of course they were happy, they didn't know any better. 387 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:54,280 They couldn't be unhappy because they didn't know what they didn't have. 388 00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,280 I once read a letter between two English merchants 389 00:22:57,315 --> 00:22:59,005 saying the problem with the Indian tribes 390 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:01,240 is that many of them don't want enough things. 391 00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:04,960 And then, the other merchant said, yeah but if you try and interest them in Venetian beads 392 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:06,200 they will love those. 393 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:07,725 Well everything was new. 394 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,680 They would try something new and exciting, 395 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:12,600 and they had never seen before. 396 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:23,360 Their new possessions didn't appear to make the Indians much happier. 397 00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:28,320 Rates of suicide and alcoholism spiralled and communities fractured. 398 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:32,600 The Tribal Chiefs would have known what Rousseau was talking about. 399 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,000 How much land did the tribe have? 400 00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:42,040 Well, just about all of Virginia. 401 00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:42,920 All of Virginia? 402 00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:46,160 And now it's got? 403 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,280 1100 and some acres, that's about it. 404 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:53,965 And do you think the culture that they have put in in its place, 405 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:59,520 I mean we drove through on the way here, through endless strip malls, 406 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:04,160 Walmarts, you know, KFCs, all these big brands. 407 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:08,960 That's the culture that has replaced the native American culture. 408 00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:12,360 What you think of the new American culture? 409 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:15,080 You've got 10 times more things to be anxious about now. 410 00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:16,560 What we are anxious about now? 411 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:19,645 We are anxious about everything. 412 00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:21,885 We've got all these psychological problems, 413 00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:26,800 we've got Prozac kids, Prozac women, Prozac men… 414 00:24:26,835 --> 00:24:27,760 But surely there… 415 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:32,640 You've lost maybe just a simpler type of life, without the anxieties. 416 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,640 The Indians ceased listening to the quiet voices 417 00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,440 that spoke of the modest pleasures of community 418 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:43,360 and of the beauty of the empty canyons at dusk, 419 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,040 and that, thought Rousseau, was what we had all done. 420 00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:51,200 I get angry when you read about it, 421 00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:57,400 you go back and kind of relive probably what the poor people went through. 422 00:24:58,560 --> 00:24:59,800 I get mad about that. 423 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:04,240 When you meet English people now do you feel angry or do you forgive them? 424 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:06,200 You English? 425 00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,200 Yeah! That's why I'm asking, nervously. 426 00:25:10,235 --> 00:25:12,120 Would you like to swim? 427 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:15,160 Are you going to throw me in? 428 00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:23,920 It was an American psychologist, 429 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:27,120 William James who first explored, from a psychological angle, 430 00:25:27,155 --> 00:25:30,217 the particular problems that societies create for themselves 431 00:25:30,252 --> 00:25:33,280 when they start raising huge expectations in their citizens. 432 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:39,360 And James illustrates this kind of fascinating dynamic between expectations and fulfilment, 433 00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:41,280 in a kind of theory that he writes. 434 00:25:41,360 --> 00:25:43,000 He says that our self-esteem 435 00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:45,680 that thing that we are searching for, self-esteem 436 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:47,640 is a result of two things: 437 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:48,720 success 438 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,080 the number of things that we are successful at, 439 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:51,800 over 440 00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:52,920 expectation 441 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,560 the number of things that we expect to be successful at. 442 00:25:57,280 --> 00:25:58,605 And what he is really saying by this 443 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:01,640 is that in order to have high self-esteem you can do two things: 444 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:03,680 either become more successful 445 00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:07,520 or lower the number of things that you expect to be successful at. 446 00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:12,320 And the problem, James says, of modern American societies, and also western European, 447 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:16,080 is that they are constantly placing us under huge pressures to succeed. 448 00:26:16,120 --> 00:26:19,040 They are constantly raising the level of our expectations 449 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:23,320 and in so doing, they are making self-esteem a very elusive thing indeed. 450 00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:30,680 Every rise in our levels of expectation, 451 00:26:30,715 --> 00:26:33,720 entails a rise in the risks of humiliation. 452 00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:35,880 And if we do fail, 453 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:38,840 how much sympathy can we expect from other people, 454 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:43,000 when the system seems bent on removing every excuse we might have 455 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:44,280 for our failures? 456 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:57,880 I worry about trying to survive, trying to make it, 457 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,160 you know, just working hard and trying to provide for my kids, 458 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:07,120 trying to keep a nice home over their head and make sure something someday 459 00:27:07,155 --> 00:27:08,080 it's hard. 460 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:10,200 Move into better house, 461 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:11,840 get a better car, 462 00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:13,925 buy better clothes. 463 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,840 And when God gets finished tell him to give you the mike and let you testify. 464 00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:24,680 It seems I will never buy the big, big house like I see on the TV. 465 00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:29,920 You have got to decide to be relentless, 466 00:27:29,955 --> 00:27:31,920 you have got to decide to never give up, 467 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:33,560 you have got to be hungry. 468 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,120 If you are rich you are rich, if you are poor you are poor. 469 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,440 It's not, you know,.. and then and if you are in between, 470 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,440 you've got to strive to stay where you are at, 471 00:27:43,475 --> 00:27:45,400 or you are going to fall under. 472 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:50,160 God is sick and tired of his people looking like lemons in the face. 473 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,400 He wants you to enjoy your life. 474 00:27:55,360 --> 00:27:58,520 I worry about my safety, you know, I am a young black man. 475 00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:00,880 Most young black males are either dead or locked up. 476 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:02,120 You know? 477 00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:03,120 That's horrible. 478 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:04,920 I don't want to have to worry about that. 479 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:06,320 You know what I mean? 480 00:28:06,360 --> 00:28:07,360 That's not living to me. 481 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:09,400 That's not living at all. 482 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:13,640 See the only time normal times I would be able to get to get on camera, 483 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:15,480 is if I was coming out of court, 484 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:16,480 do you know what I mean? 485 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:17,800 Or something else. 486 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:28,560 No country embodies the meritocratic ideal like America. 487 00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:32,960 It is, we are constantly being told, a wide-open country, 488 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,480 where anyone who works hard can succeed. 489 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:39,800 This constant striving can disturb the mental calm of people 490 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:42,920 who are, to all intents and purposes, rich. 491 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,760 But it has will also change their attitudes towards the poor. 492 00:28:57,800 --> 00:28:59,800 Of course, America isn't a meritocracy, 493 00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:01,285 you only have to look around you 494 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:04,040 to see that the system is weighted in favour of certain groups, 495 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:06,160 and massively weighted against others. 496 00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:08,240 You only had to remember the issue of race. 497 00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:13,120 Yet the key point is that Americans perceive that their society is, in fact, meritocratic 498 00:29:13,155 --> 00:29:16,480 and there is a cruel logic to the whole idea of a meritocracy, 499 00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:20,240 because if you genuinely believe that those at the top merit their success, 500 00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,960 you have to believe that those at the bottom must merit their failure. 501 00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:32,560 Jenny Lamont begs by the side of the road to feed her two children. 502 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:35,200 What do you think when you see people like her? 503 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:37,120 Do you think they have been unlucky? 504 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:41,040 Or do you tend to assume that they have, in some way, brought it on themselves? 505 00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:42,880 That they are losers, even? 506 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:49,440 I think a lot of the middle-class people and people that have money, 507 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,080 yeah they look down on me. 508 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:53,085 When rich people come, 509 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:57,160 they'll be rolling their windows up or they weren't even pull their car up next to you. 510 00:29:57,195 --> 00:29:59,200 They don't want to have anything to do with you. 511 00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:02,600 So who are the people who help you most? 512 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:08,280 Mexicans, Indian women and a lot of women. 513 00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:09,640 Why do you think that is? 514 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:11,800 Because they have been there 515 00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:15,120 and they know that you wouldn't be out there if you didn't need it. 516 00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:16,960 Thank you so much ma'am, 517 00:30:16,995 --> 00:30:18,605 God bless you, thank you. 518 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:20,365 You have a nice day ma'am, thank you so much. 519 00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:24,840 My husband and I were together for 26 years and my husband recently died. 520 00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:28,080 I was a bookkeeper for a small company. 521 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,680 I worked there for seven years and I lost my job. 522 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:34,600 I came home from work 523 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:36,200 he was in a coma on the couch. 524 00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:37,520 I called the ambulance, 525 00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:40,240 hey took him to the hospital, 526 00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:43,760 he died September 11, 527 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:46,760 02 of the year anniversary of the plane crash. 528 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,260 And I went into a real bad depression, 529 00:30:50,295 --> 00:30:52,720 I was still at my job at that time. 530 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:55,840 And at that point, you lived in a nice house? 531 00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:59,840 I had my own apartment, two-bedroom apartment. 532 00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:02,240 But I couldn't play the rent, 533 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,080 so I just recently got evicted 534 00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,120 and I have to be out on the 13th of this month. 535 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:11,045 So where are you living now? 536 00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:13,800 My father-in-law has let me stay in his basement. 537 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:17,720 When you need to feed your kids, you do anything. 538 00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:21,600 It's real degrading going out there, but it's how I feed my kids. 539 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:28,480 So I don't care what the people said to me is, what they yell at me, or anything. 540 00:31:28,515 --> 00:31:31,240 Thank you so much ma'am, God bless you, thank you. 541 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:33,085 They don't know my story. 542 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:35,240 They don't know what's going on in my life. 543 00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:38,680 Are you surprised by what has happened to you when you look back on your life? 544 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:40,325 Are you….are you shocked? 545 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:43,280 How do you think about what has happened to you? 546 00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:47,280 I try not to because I get depressed, 547 00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:52,000 you know, because everything I had was great, my life was great, 548 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,720 and I kind of lost it, like, within a month, everything was gone. 549 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:03,240 From the middle of the 19th century, especially in the United States, 550 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:07,800 perceptions of the relative virtues of the poor and the wealthy began to change. 551 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:11,880 The possession of money began to seem less like a fortunate blessing, 552 00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:14,960 and more like proof of moral superiority. 553 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:29,320 I felt a bit nervous about meeting Grover Norquist. 554 00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:33,600 He is one of Washington's most prominent neoconservative lobbyists. 555 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:37,120 Can you make sure the front desk does not put calls through? 556 00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:44,800 So what do you see as the most fundamental ideas about American society and the economy? 557 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:49,165 Well, it based…, the United States, from day one 558 00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:53,400 was founded down the basis that anybody could do and be anything they wanted to. 559 00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:55,960 Didn't matter who your parents were, didn't matter what are they did. 560 00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:58,680 That you were in charge of your own future, 561 00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:01,920 there is no ceiling, and there is no floor. 562 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:04,200 If you want to be a bum, you can be a bum. 563 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:08,320 If you want to accomplish great things you can do that, it's up to you. 564 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:13,320 The State's responsibility is to provide for a free and open and Just society, 565 00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:17,040 to execute murderers and otherwise leave people alone. 566 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:19,240 Why shouldn't the state help the needy? 567 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:23,960 Because to do that, you would have to steal money from people who earned it 568 00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:25,760 and give it to people who didn't, 569 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:28,080 and then you make the State into a thief. 570 00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:29,280 Why is it theft? 571 00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:31,680 To take money that you didn't earn? 572 00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:34,400 Could you give me one second? 573 00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:36,960 Damon. 574 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:43,120 Damon. 575 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,040 Whatever you're doing shouting over there, it comes right through the walls. 576 00:33:47,075 --> 00:33:48,880 Could you make sure people are quiet, 577 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,720 because we are getting noise louder than just talking noises through the walls. 578 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,200 You are suggesting that taxation is theft? 579 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:05,960 Taxation beyond the legitimate requirements of providing for Justice, is theft, sure. 580 00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:08,365 It strikes me that there is a lot less guilt 581 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:13,560 towards the underprivileged in American society, compared to in European society, 582 00:34:13,595 --> 00:34:14,800 why do you think that might be? 583 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:18,320 If you believe that somebody's property and wealth, 584 00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:23,100 is not necessarily legitimately earned, because he is an Earl or a Duke for he got it from 585 00:34:23,135 --> 00:34:27,480 his great- great- great-great- grandfather who stole it from the Normans or the Saxons, 586 00:34:27,515 --> 00:34:28,040 or something. 587 00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:32,920 Well then, Proudhon "property is theft". 588 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:35,600 And in Europe, a lot of property was theft. 589 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:39,680 In the United States because we take so many immigrants, 590 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:43,080 it's a little hard to argue that you can't succeed when you see 591 00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:48,600 five-year-old Cambodian children coming out of the killing fields of Cambodia 592 00:34:48,635 --> 00:34:52,880 becoming the best speller in the country at aged 12. 593 00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:54,880 OK, that person can do it 594 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,280 and you are telling me that you can't get out of bed in the morning 595 00:34:58,315 --> 00:35:00,760 and go to work because life is unfair? 596 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:05,520 Do you think it is nicer to be poor in Europe than it is in the United States? 597 00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:08,000 Nicer? 598 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:14,080 I don't know, maybe less dignity if the government is willing to do more for you. 599 00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:17,365 When people give you money for not working, 600 00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:21,040 it is destructive of human dignity and eventually destructive of human liberty. 601 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:26,760 It turns people into lazily folks who don't want to accomplish anything 602 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:28,320 and just sort-of sit around. 603 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:31,680 Why would you want to have anything to do with that? 604 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:37,600 I don't believe in the American dream. 605 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:39,360 You know. I really don't. 606 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,640 I think it is just words, you know? 607 00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:49,000 In America, it became possible for the first time, 608 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:52,280 to argue that the rung of the ladder each person stood on, 609 00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:55,200 accurately reflected their true qualities. 610 00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:57,360 Conveniently for the successful, 611 00:35:57,520 --> 00:35:59,840 this reduced the need for welfare, 612 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:01,520 redistribution of wealth 613 00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:03,400 or even simple compassion. 614 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:08,680 Given this relentless logic, voices like Grover's will only grow louder. 615 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:09,880 DAMON 616 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:16,080 If you met someone who was very successful in every way, 617 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:17,845 had lots of fame, money respect, 618 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:19,940 and you asked them why they were successful 619 00:36:19,975 --> 00:36:22,000 and they said "well it's just good luck", 620 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,320 you would think they were being unduly modest. 621 00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:26,800 Similarly, if you met someone who was a failure in every way 622 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:28,605 no job, no money, no respect 623 00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:30,320 and you asked them what had happened, 624 00:36:30,355 --> 00:36:32,000 and they said it was just bad luck, 625 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,080 you would think they were trying to hide something. 626 00:36:34,240 --> 00:36:36,160 Essentially, luck has disappeared 627 00:36:36,195 --> 00:36:37,645 as a plausible explanation 628 00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:39,520 for what happens to people in their life. 629 00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:42,620 "Winners make their own luck" 630 00:36:42,655 --> 00:36:44,440 is the punishing, modern mantra. 631 00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:58,120 And yet, for all our unwillingness to put much faith in luck, 632 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:00,045 we are, in important ways, 633 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,840 more at the mercy of forces beyond our control than ever before. 634 00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:08,160 The globalised economy has brought great reward to its winners. 635 00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:12,440 But it is also constantly creating large numbers of losers. 636 00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:16,920 In traditional societies, high status and the respect it brings, 637 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,560 may have been inordinately hard to acquire, 638 00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:22,720 but they were also pleasantly hard to lose. 639 00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:28,000 Modern societies have sought to make status dependent on achievement, 640 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:30,360 primarily financial achievement. 641 00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:34,200 But the nature of the economy that those societies have created 642 00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:37,280 is making that achievement ever more precarious. 643 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:49,560 Bethlehem steel outside Baltimore was once the largest steelworks in the world. 644 00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:52,960 Now all but one of its furnaces lay rusting, 645 00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:56,600 its workforce down from 32,000 to 2000. 646 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:01,320 Joe Rizell has worked there all his professional life. 647 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:05,040 There is always been a sense of pride in the steel industry, 648 00:38:05,075 --> 00:38:07,480 a lot of the people in the steel industry are patriotic, 649 00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:09,885 people who enlisted in the Army, 650 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:13,280 we were doing lot of work that would build America and people knew that. 651 00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:24,000 I thought I would be unable to retire here like my father. 652 00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:27,960 My father is second-generation, my father worked right here in this mill. 653 00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:33,200 We are on slippery slope now, we could be here today, gone tomorrow, we just don't know. 654 00:38:33,240 --> 00:38:34,320 There is a lot of uncertainty. 655 00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:39,640 For most of us, our work is the chief determinant of the amount of respect 656 00:38:39,675 --> 00:38:41,520 and care that we will be granted. 657 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:45,520 The globalised economy is making that work more unstable, 658 00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:48,120 opening up an anxiety-inducing gap 659 00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:51,160 between what we need and what the world will give us. 660 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:56,360 Constant pressure from imported steel coming into the country 661 00:38:56,395 --> 00:38:59,965 has made these jobs very precarious in terms of 662 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,720 "Are they going to last? Are you going be able to get to your retirement? 663 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:05,040 Are you going to get your pension or not?" 664 00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:10,080 No matter what it seems we do to make ourselves more productive, 665 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:12,120 and we are more productive than we have ever been, 666 00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:13,920 it never seems to be enough. 667 00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:18,080 Does all this makes you more sad or more angry? 668 00:39:18,720 --> 00:39:20,165 I'm more angry than sad, 669 00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:26,120 but the anger is towards people saying there is free trade 670 00:39:26,240 --> 00:39:28,760 and fair trade when I know there is not. 671 00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:33,280 The sadness is seeing an industry that doesn't have to be destroyed, 672 00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:37,360 be destroyed over time by he globalisation of trade, 673 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:43,120 with no plan on how that should be done, just having chaos reign. 674 00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:55,080 We seem determined to remove any excuse we might point to for failure. 675 00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:59,280 Just when more and more of us are less secure in our jobs than ever. 676 00:39:59,920 --> 00:40:03,640 I am interested in the consolation still available to the unsuccessful, 677 00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:07,160 when the world doesn't give them the respect that they need. 678 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:20,360 Move into a better house, 679 00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:22,120 get a better car, 680 00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:24,080 buy better clothes 681 00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:28,040 and then when God gets finished, tell him to give you the mike and let you testify. 682 00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:34,320 Over the course of the 19th century, many Christian thinkers, 683 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,440 especially in the United States, began to change 684 00:40:37,475 --> 00:40:40,360 their views of money and worldly success. 685 00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:44,560 Increasingly, in a departure from traditional Christian thought, 686 00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:46,885 American Protestant denominations 687 00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:51,080 have suggested that wealth might be a reward from God for holiness. 688 00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:53,205 Made money your friend. 689 00:40:53,240 --> 00:40:54,760 Touch a neighbour, say: "make money your friend". 690 00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:58,480 Make all the money you can. 691 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:03,680 Our friend, de Tocqueville, also noticed this new American tendency 692 00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:08,640 for Christianity to align itself with the materialist values of the rest of the culture. 693 00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:10,920 "The evangelical mission", he said, 694 00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:14,040 "appears here to be an industrial enterprise". 695 00:41:18,720 --> 00:41:20,560 Bishop Jimmy Ellis III, 696 00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:25,840 founded the Victory Christian Centre in a rundown Philadelphia neighbourhood in 1983. 697 00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:28,600 His congregation now numbers 1600. 698 00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:33,520 We need to learn how to become friends with money. 699 00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:36,480 You know the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 700 00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:40,760 That though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, 701 00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:44,120 that you, through his poverty, might be rich. 702 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:46,040 And that's not spiritual riches there. 703 00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:47,640 People try to make it spiritual, 704 00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,760 it is not spiritual. The whole chapter is something about money. 705 00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:51,040 So let me try and understand: 706 00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:55,360 So, Jesus became poor, so that we can become rich on Earth. 707 00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:56,200 That is right. 708 00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:01,000 Sunday morning in Levington, Suffolk England. 709 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:03,440 For centuries, all across the West, 710 00:42:03,720 --> 00:42:06,040 people have been coming to services like this. 711 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,320 On offer, has always been the consoling reminder 712 00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:16,240 that there might be more important things in life than status and success. 713 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:21,320 The very fact that we still retain a distinction between wealth and virtue, 714 00:42:21,520 --> 00:42:25,040 and ask of people whether they are good, rather than simply important 715 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:30,200 is, in large part, due to the impression that Christianity has left on Western consciousness. 716 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:36,280 …for Jesus Christ's sake, our only mediator and advocate. 717 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:40,360 It has become rather unfashionable to take Christianity all that seriously, 718 00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:41,680 in Britain at least. 719 00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:43,160 And yet, the fact that we don't, 720 00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:46,400 may be a major cause of our modern status anxieties. 721 00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:48,880 We have largely lost the Christian sense 722 00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:50,760 that there is no necessary connection 723 00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:53,880 between a person's value and their status in the world. 724 00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,760 For Christians, Jesus had been the highest man, 725 00:42:56,795 --> 00:42:57,960 the most blessed, 726 00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:00,880 and yet on earth he had been a humble carpenter, 727 00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:06,040 ruling out any simple equation between a person's status and their position in heaven. 728 00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:09,880 It is worth dwelling on just how much consolation there must have been 729 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:11,640 in that very simple idea. 730 00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:15,320 You can't tell me nothing about this subject, because I was poor. 731 00:43:15,355 --> 00:43:17,760 But I bless God I ain't poor now. 732 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:26,805 I didn't have no bank account, but I thank my God that I followed him. 733 00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:33,040 I thank God I know what God can do for you, if you just follow and obey him. 734 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:56,200 In "The City of God", written in AD 427 in the closing years of the Roman Empire, 735 00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:58,240 the theologian, Saint Augustine, 736 00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:00,640 explained that all human actions 737 00:44:00,720 --> 00:44:05,080 could be interpreted from either a Christian or a Roman perspective. 738 00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:09,320 The very things esteemed so highly by the Romans, 739 00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:12,720 amassing money, building villas, winning wars, 740 00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:15,280 counted for nothing in the Christian outlook. 741 00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:25,280 Saint Augustine urged Christians to replace Roman values with a new set of concerns: 742 00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:28,680 loving one's neighbours, practising humility and charity, 743 00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:31,240 and recognising one's dependence on God. 744 00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:36,000 Practising those values offered the key to elevated Christian status. 745 00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:39,520 Over coffee and biscuits at Ian and Margaret Angus's, 746 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:41,560 Canon Geoffrey Grant explained. 747 00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:44,685 How can you tell if someone is spiritually rich? 748 00:44:44,720 --> 00:44:49,840 Is that connected to if someone has got quite a lot of income? 749 00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:53,400 Not necessarily, no, I don't think so at all. 750 00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:58,120 Do you think that the Lord rewards people who are good with riches? 751 00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:00,160 Absolutely. Absolutely. 752 00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:02,485 I mean if somebody has got a very nice car, 753 00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:06,800 doesn't that show that God thinks that this person is quite good? 754 00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:08,685 I don't think so. 755 00:45:08,720 --> 00:45:12,360 You get …a classic example is Mother Teresa. 756 00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:14,860 Jesus Christ came in order to make us abundant, 757 00:45:14,895 --> 00:45:17,320 so that we wouldn't have to live in poverty 758 00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:18,840 and we wouldn't have to live in lack 759 00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:22,160 and that is part of the new covenant that he provided. 760 00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:25,880 So there might be people here who have little money but they are very rich, spiritually. 761 00:45:25,915 --> 00:45:28,240 They are rich spiritually and that comes out 762 00:45:28,275 --> 00:45:29,320 when they come to church 763 00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:31,240 and when you talk to them. 764 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:34,960 They are pillars of the village and they will go round spending their whole lives 765 00:45:35,720 --> 00:45:36,960 looking after their neighbours. 766 00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:41,680 On the whole, if you saw 100 rich people and 100 poor people, 767 00:45:41,715 --> 00:45:43,405 would you in a way.. if you had to make a choice… 768 00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:46,960 would you say that the richer group was the holier group, 769 00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:49,205 not just rich but also holy 770 00:45:49,240 --> 00:45:52,880 and that the poor group was in a way maybe the more sinful group. 771 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:54,800 No, I would not advocate that at all. 772 00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:56,840 I would not advocate that at all. 773 00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:02,440 Because riches, is not an indication of holiness. 774 00:46:03,240 --> 00:46:04,880 But before, you said it was. 775 00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:06,160 Excuse me? 776 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:09,720 No, I said that's a part of it, I was very clear, 777 00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:12,160 I said that it is a part of the blessing of God. 778 00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:15,120 But you don't have to be rich in order to be holy. 779 00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:17,680 Because many rich people are not holy 780 00:46:18,720 --> 00:46:20,560 and many poor people are not holy, too, 781 00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:24,200 so the richness itself is not holiness, no. 782 00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:26,680 So what, overall, can we say about riches? 783 00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:30,440 I mean, is riches a sign of holiness or isn't it? 784 00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:33,000 I mean if you had to make a sort of generalisation. 785 00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:38,440 Riches is a by-product of walking with God. 786 00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:42,800 Geoffrey, what is your own attitude towards the wealth for yourself. 787 00:46:43,200 --> 00:46:45,440 My car, for instance, is 16 years old. 788 00:46:45,475 --> 00:46:46,800 Why don't you get a newer one? 789 00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:48,640 Really because I haven't been able to afford it 790 00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:53,040 and I'd rather have the car I know than buy a secondhand car. 791 00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,240 So it doesn't really matter to you what car you drive? 792 00:46:55,400 --> 00:46:59,120 No, I don't, as long as it goes and it's reliable. 793 00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:01,205 And perhaps that is what God thinks about us. 794 00:47:01,240 --> 00:47:04,960 The Bible does not say money is the root of all evil, 795 00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:09,800 the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. 796 00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:12,560 And you can have plenty of it and don't love it, 797 00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:15,320 and the key to that is being generous. 798 00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:18,040 I believe the Lord is so good Amen. 799 00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:21,040 He has been better to me than I have been to myself. 800 00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:26,560 Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah. 801 00:47:27,600 --> 00:47:29,760 Coming to hear Bishop Ellis here in Philadelphia, 802 00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:31,365 I think what is striking for me, 803 00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:36,520 is to realise just how much Christianity has been readapted to fit a new, American, model. 804 00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:38,840 To fit the idea of the American dream. 805 00:47:39,040 --> 00:47:42,240 And I think what is particularly striking perhaps to someone coming from Europe, 806 00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:46,240 is just how much that consoling message, the traditional message of Christianity 807 00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:48,840 that you can both be poor and spiritually rich 808 00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:49,920 has been lost. 809 00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:52,560 And that, I think, is a very troubling lesson indeed. 810 00:47:57,880 --> 00:47:59,840 Until the late 19th century, 811 00:47:59,880 --> 00:48:02,600 it was the spires of churches and cathedrals 812 00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:06,280 which dominated the skyscape of every town and city in the West. 813 00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:09,525 City dwellers engaged in worldly tasks 814 00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:11,880 could remind themselves of a vision of life, 815 00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:15,200 which challenged the authority of ordinary ambitions. 816 00:48:16,560 --> 00:48:21,000 There is no doubt that it's worldly values that have now triumphed over spiritual ones. 817 00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:23,920 And there is one aspect of this decline in Christian belief 818 00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:26,960 with particular implications for status anxiety. 819 00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:30,120 In an age which could believe that what happened to you on Earth 820 00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:33,880 but a brief prelude to what might happen in the next life, 821 00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:38,000 the pressure to succeed and fulfil yourself would inevitably be lessened. 822 00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:39,765 But in a secular age, 823 00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:43,680 in which the whole idea of an afterlife has become increasingly unbelievable, 824 00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:47,800 the pressure to succeed in this life has inevitably heightened. 825 00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:49,560 What you achieve, right now, 826 00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:53,000 in your own life is all that you will ever be. 827 00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:55,320 No wonder we are slightly more worried.