Status Anxiety Alain De Botton Analysis

Humor has been used for many generations with an unclear origin. Over time as society progresses, the kind of humor produced adjusts to what fits the culture. One thing doesn’t change however, and that is the purpose of humor which is to provide laughter and amusement for whoever is aware of the topic. In this day and age, we live in a time of humor that is much different than the humor that took place a hundred, or even fifty years ago. Back in 2004, Alain de Botton argued in his nonfiction book Status Anxiety, how humor can be used to not only entertain but it also allows messages regarding society to be safely expressed without the danger that could occur if stated directly. For this reason, Botton believes they play a key role in society.
During a time when it was unusual for people to speak their opinion because of the seriousness of the situation there were only few who said what everyone else was thinking but could not say. This significant time period was World War 2 and the Cold War. One of the essential roles in spreading the truth to the public was children’s author, Theodor Seuss Geisel, more well known as Doctor Seuss. Although many of the cartoons he drew clearly reflected how the government reacted to certain situations, several of his books also had a similar comparison to real time events. Take The Butter Battle Book for example, which takes place by a wall separating two towns who are at war. As the story goes on, each town tries to one-up the other eventually turning into an arms-race. The cause of the war is that they are fighting over which side they put butter on their bread which is seen by most readers as a silly reason for war. At the time the book was published The United States and the Soviet Union were also in an arms-race like in the book. The purpose of Geisel’s story was to use a children’s book and humor to spread his opinion on The Cold War. He believed that the reason the two countries were fighting was silly similarly to war over which side butter was put on bread. With the book published more and more people were able to come to realization and develop their own opinions towards the war. Botton’s view
Almost just as popular as political humor, Economic humor is also used frequently in jokes or cartoons to spread awareness of the financial state of the nation. One example of economic humor is of a cartoon with three people and a structure labeled “the economy” that appears to be heavy. One of the three people labeled “citizens” is struggling to hold it up by themselves while the person labeled “government” is sleeping under the structure and the person labeled “banks” is sitting under the structure taking money out of the one holding it up. The cartoonist of this design obviously feels himself and all other citizens are being cheated and deserve to be treated fairly. If the other two people helped hold that structure then the one labeled “citizen” wouldn’t have to do endure the weight all by himself. By using this drawing as a form of a message he hopes to let his voice be heard which might eventually cause a change in society. Without this method it would be a lot harder to find a way to get people to actually listen even if most of them can