Essay on Russell: Keeping Up with the Jones'

Bonnie Williams

Philosophy of Happiness

Dr. Oliver

November 3, 2011

Keeping Up with the Jones’: How Comparison Kills Happiness

Throughout Bertrand Russell’s The Conquest of Happiness, by making excellent use of thematic gravity and sometimes utter preposterousness, he clarifies what happiness is and how to we should go about obtaining it. One of Russell’s favorite words and probably his most significant theme is zest; “Zest is an appetite for possible things, upon which all happiness, whether of men or animals, ultimately depends” (5). His syllogism that “what hunger is in relation to food, zest is in relation to life” establishes the foundation for his thought process (and the namesake for his book) that happiness is an idea, a state to be quested after (111). Just as we cannot become totally satiated by subtracting hunger, we cannot become completely gratified by obtaining the element of zest: happiness requires an active, passionate pursuit. To passionately pursue the holy grail of happiness, we must fight some battles with particular foes, including ourselves and our view of others. In this paper, I aim to focus on what Russell pontificates about envy, specifically the folly of comparison, and how we must slay this destructive habit in order to establish ourselves as happy “citizen[s] of the universe.”

When we compare ourselves to others what we are really doing is becoming entirely self-absorbed, and Russell has much to say, in just a few words, about the precociousness of self-absorption; “one’s ego is no very large part of the world” (48). In America especially, the consumeristic basis for happiness is marketed as fulfillment: you will not be happy until you have this product which is proven to make you happy because the Smiths’, the Jones’, and the Browns’ already have this product and, gee, don’t they look happy? In a very warped way, many of us buy into this notion because we are forever trying to prove to ourselves (and show others) that we are living the American dream--land, liberty, happiness and all. In my mind, the fruitlessness of this dead dream is the unforgettable situation of the doctor who lives next to the lawyer in a perfectly prim suburb.

Every morning as the lawyer leaves for work, he sees the doctor getting into his brand new -----, a symbol of his big paycheck, long workweeks, and high status. Of course, the lawyer wants this to display this same status and drives home from work in a brand new -----. Then the doctor pulls up, and they exchange small talk, mostly about the new in-ground pool, the great private school they put their kids in, the just-around-the-corner promotions, not to mention the upcoming charity benefit. We all know this story, right? The doctor and the lawyer, blazingly self-absorbed in their own status, use each other as points of comparison as to what a successful, happy person should be. Russell explains, “What people fear [. . .] is not that they will fail to get their breakfast next morning, but that they will fail to outshine their neighbors” (27). What people don’t see inside the new Beamers and white picket fences are the marriages falling apart, the kids being ignored, and the third mortgages being taken out. Even worse, if we do see behind the illusions, why do we keep working 65 hour weeks, sending the kids to after-school programs, and buying iPads? Envy, and jealousy (a special form of envy), are effectively “fatal to all excellence” and happiness (69). Envy makes everyone miserable, from the husband medicating with alcohol, to the wife downing Prozac, to the kids doped on Adderall. So what is the cure for envy?

As far as I know, there’s not a pill yet. However, Russell offers a good dose of advice in how to overcome it, “teach yourself that life would still be worth living even if you were not, as of course you are, immeasurably superior to all your friends in virtue and intelligence” (173). Sarcasm aside, we must note that there is always something we see as better, and if we focus to much on objects in relation, never in themselves, then we will become “eaten up with a sense of injustice” (71). My favorite Russell quote for his chapter on envy rings just this note, “If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon. But Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I dare say, envied Hercules, who never existed” (72). There will always someone who does some job better than you, makes more money than you, got better grades in school than you, and if we trace it back far enough, who are we really envying? Russell and I are here to tell you, Hercules never existed. There is no point in chasing an unattainable goal. To escape from the universal affliction of envy and the disparaging unattainable goal, we must reinvigorate our attempts to seek happiness for ourselves: happiness, which is obtainable.

But it isn’t obtainable over the counter, it require mental discipline. If we omit saints from the account, the crux of the matter becomes this: “the only cure for envy in the case of ordinary men and women is happiness, and the difficulty is that envy is itself a terrible obstacle for happiness” (70). The answer to this riddle first lies in the recognition of why we are each so envious. And if we are to be envious of something, then “what is more enviable than happiness?” The second clue is that, instead of spending some much thought and energy on detrimental emotions, we must truly experience our own lives; “When anything pleasant occurs it should be enjoyed to the full, without stopping to think that it is not so pleasant as something else that may possibly be happening to someone else” (71). We must stop being pained by what others have, and instead be joyful with what we do have (69). Furthermore, “You can get away from envy by enjoying the pleasures that come your way, by doing the work that you have to do, and by avoiding comparisons with those whom you imagine, perhaps quite falsely, to be more fortunate than yourself” (72).

Stop attempting to keep up with Jones’ or else we are all going to end up bankrupted, unhappy, and psychologically exhausted. Instead of looking through their window to see what size their new flat screen is, let’s look around our own house and take stock of how we can use our energy for more admirable purposes. Stop and think about it. The lawyer may have noticed that the neighbor kids all wear Abercrombie, but how much notice does he give his own children? The lawyer and the doctor, the manifested envious person in us all, notice family dynamics, just not their own, stereotypically. If they could just settle on 40 hour weeks and a Volkswagen, I bet they could each use that time to reinvent his own family dynamics into a recognizably functioning home. Instead of passionately pursuing the next paycheck, if they could realize to passionately pursue parenting then I bet their children will grow into a generation that doesn’t hold the same envious attitudes.

In this extreme, stereotypical example I have sought to really underline what Russell means by envy and what he means to say about fixing it. I have attributed the stereotypes of this example parenting as the cause for which their envy can be misdirected, and while I firmly believe it is crucial to rear the next generation without this outrageous competition with the Jones’, many of you reading this paper, I would guess, don’t have children. But I don’t assume that to mean that you do not have a cause.

If you don’t have one, pick one up at Walmart, search the cosmos for one, just find one. We must find a cause, some important work to do in the world, to relinquish our occupation with ourselves and our envy of others, and, of course, to become happy. Russell was famously humanist, even getting arrested at age 90 for protesting the Vietnam War. He had an active interest in our world even upon death’s doorstep and he fought for his cause. Humanity is all that we have, and we must not ignore it. Ever closer to death, Russell was asked what he would want future generations to know. His moral advice was simple, “Love is wise, hatred is foolish.” As the world becomes more interrelated and we all become global citizens this advice is sage as ever. Try not to become burdened by the world’s seemingly imminent doom. Fight for healthcare, become a pacifist, banner clean energy, whatever it is you decide to do, “find the right road out of this despair, civilized man must enlarge his heart as he has enlarged his mind. He must learn to transcend self, and in so doing to acquire the freedom of the Universe” (76).

Russell, Bertrand. The Conquest of Happiness. London, England: Allen and Unwin, 1930. Print.