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How to Think about Sex, How Proust can Change your Life, Status Anxiety and Religion for Atheists are just a few of the subjects Alain de Botton has addressed in his books (his first work, Essays in love, written at 23, sold two million copies). His prolific writing, TV programmes and media presence have made him an internationally popular philosopher, a label with which he has no problem. “The elites have a ridiculous suspicion of popularity”, he told a packed audience at the Edinburgh international books festival.
Dismissed as a self-help evangelist, shallow and obvious, with smarmy and banal ideas by critics in this newspaper, he divides opinions and is certainly intriguing. His latest work, The News: a User’s Manual, is an exploration of contemporary media and the impact of the 24-hour news bombardment. Whether he offers much new is up for discussion, but he is nothing if not quotable. Here are 10 of his provocations:
Most problems in our society come down to the media
We mostly know how to live, what we want for our kids and even how to run an economy. So why doesn’t it happen? The media is what colours and textures our belief systems. It has, in a way, replaced religion.
The media is the new church
The old way in which we used to know what was important was, argued De Botton, “by opening a book that hadn’t changed in hundreds of years”. Religions used to dominate western imaginations, and the media has replaced them.
Writers aren’t important
If you are trying to start a revolution, you drive a tank to the TV station, not to the houses of novelists … Writers mean nothing!
Bellini would be painting Taylor Swift today
The Catholic Church employed Bellini, who painted the Taylor Swifts of the day. Things need to be popular to be listened to. There is a ridiculous suspicion of popularity.
There isn’t that much news after all
18 million people a day check the BBC News website. What do they expect to find? We think there’s where we’ll find what’s important … But there isn’t as much news as we think there is.
According to De Botton, most of the news stories are archetypes that , “under all the flutter and noise,” keep coming around: See the photo below? To him, it’s the exact same story as Taylor Swift going to the supermarket or Natalie Portman going to the park with her son: “We expect princes to live in the clouds.”
People have no interest in those they haven’t met
The dream of the news is that it makes us care about other people and situations. But we cannot identify with people to whom we haven’t been introduced. Humans will only respond to art, to people who are skilled in making you care.
The media should bring us wisdom
Wisdom is that part of knowledge that is not just true but also helpful in leading a flourishing life. The mission of the media should be to help the individual and the nation to flourish.
The news is always trying to scare you
Always remember that the news is always trying to make you scared. It’s bad for us, but very good for news organisations: the easiest way to get an audience is through frightening people. And sometimes they give massive hope about there being a cure for cancer! We need to return to that sober mentality of the guys the news replaced: life is a cycle – there’s no need to go from extreme hope to fear.
Sunday papers foster envy
News organisations excel at making us jealous, De Botton said. He used the example of Elon Musk, the wealthy businessman behind Tesla cars among other ventures, whose lifestyle we hear about in the media:
The news is the foremost promoter of a toxic society of envy. People like Musk are one in 10 million, but we’re told they’re guys just like us. Sunday newspapers in particular: please never read the Sunday papers. You’ll never find anything new about the world and they will make you a miserable creature.
Celebrities are our role models
I strongly believe every society needs heroes and heroines. We cannot have a society where there are no role models. The elite, the serious media, have abandoned the task of creating role models. They seat back and criticise the Miley Cyrus thing … But who do they propose?
Forget BBC values - bias is good
I am pro-bias. The BBC is idiotically pretending it has no bias [...] but balance drives us crazy. We don’t need unbiased news, we need news with good bias.
The smartphone changed everything
The summer of 2000 can be seen as the last time we were ever truly alone, he said: “The invention of the smartphone fundamentally changed the dynamics of Western society”.
The news wants to weaken our attachment and curiosity: we need desperately to be individual thinkers.
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