A review by alfyasmeen
The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell
5.0
I had my doubts: how can a privileged white, male philosopher tell me, a modern-day female minority about the conquest of happiness via a book that was written before my dad was born? How could we possibly have anything in common? Color me surprised. It's striking how relevant his writing is, to our society today.
I started reading this book after a stressful year in my life where I got too caught up with feelings of anxiety and lack of achievement despite working hard most days. I will not go through the gory details because I doubt they will be relatable or useful to anyone, but nothing that I did or read during that year helped till this book arrived. I needed a "why", and this book gave me an answer to that, and to "how".
Keep in mind that this book is not going to be helpful to anyone who suffers from real tragedy or grief, it's simply meant to be used as a framework to understanding why you are unhappy despite having a semi-comfortable life. Which I think applies to most people who are capable of reading for leisure. Russell starts out with declaring that most of your unhappiness stems from a preoccupation with yourself and a lack of genuine interest with the external objects. The book is divided into two main parts: Causes of unhappiness, and causes of happiness. I found the first part to be most insightful because I suffered from every, single, cause, that he mentioned, to some degree.
CAUSES OF UNHAPPINESS
1. Byronic Unhappiness: I frequently attributed some of my sorrows to how devastatingly bad and evil the world can be.
2. Competition: Competitive success is too dearly purchased if you sacrifice all other ingredients to happiness in order to obtain it. It's also damaging in the sense that success should not be represented as the purpose of life, since after obtaining it, you're bound to fall prey to boredom and listlessness because you do not know what to do with it... so you occupy yourself with making more success. It's a harmful cycle.
3. Boredom and Excitement: It's true that we are less bored than our ancestors were, but we are more terrified of being bored. A life full of excitement is not to be desired since it is exhausting and a certain amount of boredom and inactivity is required in order for you to be able to achieve the important things in your life. No great achievement is possible without persistent work. "A certain power of enduring boredom is essential to a happy life".
4. Fatigue: Probably my favorite chapter in the book. I highlighted all of it.
5. Envy.
6. The Sense of Sin: Speaks about what it really means to have your conscience prick you.
7. Persecution Mania: It's very easy to fall prey to this mania in a world where you see people getting ahead not based on merit alone, and when you are too preoccupied with yourself.
8. Fear of Public Opinion: "One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny." I found this chapter incredibly insightful.
I cannot believe how underrated this book is. I mean, it is true, that it's speckled with classist remarks and an abundance of gender stereotypes/roles; but it was the 1930's... it's quite remarkable - and depressing - how close it is Saudi Arabia's 2017. But, please, do not dismiss this book because of it.
Recommended.
I started reading this book after a stressful year in my life where I got too caught up with feelings of anxiety and lack of achievement despite working hard most days. I will not go through the gory details because I doubt they will be relatable or useful to anyone, but nothing that I did or read during that year helped till this book arrived. I needed a "why", and this book gave me an answer to that, and to "how".
Keep in mind that this book is not going to be helpful to anyone who suffers from real tragedy or grief, it's simply meant to be used as a framework to understanding why you are unhappy despite having a semi-comfortable life. Which I think applies to most people who are capable of reading for leisure. Russell starts out with declaring that most of your unhappiness stems from a preoccupation with yourself and a lack of genuine interest with the external objects. The book is divided into two main parts: Causes of unhappiness, and causes of happiness. I found the first part to be most insightful because I suffered from every, single, cause, that he mentioned, to some degree.
CAUSES OF UNHAPPINESS
1. Byronic Unhappiness: I frequently attributed some of my sorrows to how devastatingly bad and evil the world can be.
2. Competition: Competitive success is too dearly purchased if you sacrifice all other ingredients to happiness in order to obtain it. It's also damaging in the sense that success should not be represented as the purpose of life, since after obtaining it, you're bound to fall prey to boredom and listlessness because you do not know what to do with it... so you occupy yourself with making more success. It's a harmful cycle.
3. Boredom and Excitement: It's true that we are less bored than our ancestors were, but we are more terrified of being bored. A life full of excitement is not to be desired since it is exhausting and a certain amount of boredom and inactivity is required in order for you to be able to achieve the important things in your life. No great achievement is possible without persistent work. "A certain power of enduring boredom is essential to a happy life".
4. Fatigue: Probably my favorite chapter in the book. I highlighted all of it.
5. Envy.
6. The Sense of Sin: Speaks about what it really means to have your conscience prick you.
7. Persecution Mania: It's very easy to fall prey to this mania in a world where you see people getting ahead not based on merit alone, and when you are too preoccupied with yourself.
8. Fear of Public Opinion: "One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny." I found this chapter incredibly insightful.
I cannot believe how underrated this book is. I mean, it is true, that it's speckled with classist remarks and an abundance of gender stereotypes/roles; but it was the 1930's... it's quite remarkable - and depressing - how close it is Saudi Arabia's 2017. But, please, do not dismiss this book because of it.
Recommended.