Anti-roll society

The Good-Enough Life

This book describes how we can move beyond the pursuit of greatness and create a society where everyone can make a difference.
We live in a society driven by the pursuit of greatness and excellence. In it, we are compelled to strive to be among the richest, most powerful, and most famous. Alpert shows us that no one truly benefits from this competitive social order. Our obsession with greatness leads to stress and anxiety, damages our relationships, fosters widespread political and economic inequality, and harms the natural world. By reducing competition with one another, we can all rediscover meaning and purpose in our lives, satisfy our material and emotional needs, and begin to live more leisurely lives.
Ignoring the value and talents of the majority in the name of prioritizing excellence and over-rewarding a few has plunged the world we live in into anxiety and hardship.
I question this survival-of-the-fittest social order that exploits our talents and transforms them into a desire that drives us to earn a place at the top of a competitive hierarchy.
One of the risks of the game of getting ahead is that if you win, you start defending your position at the top of the hierarchy.
Life is not about the contributions of the most talented and successful among us to society, but about how everyone can be seen as successful and worthy of appreciation in a meaningful world. Instead of feeling the anxiety and fear of reaching the top or hitting the bottom, we have more time and leisure to appreciate the ordinary and beautiful pleasures of life.
I question this survival-of-the-fittest social order that exploits our talents and transforms them into a desire that drives us to earn a place at the top of a competitive hierarchy.
One of the risks of the game of getting ahead is that if you win, you start defending your position at the top of the hierarchy.
About the Author:
Avram Alpert is a researcher at the New Institute in Hamburg, Germany. He has taught at Rutgers University and Princeton University, and served as co-editor of Shifter magazine from 2014 to 2021. He has published three books, and his articles appear frequently in newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Aeon.

2025-04-01

中国科学技术出版社

Zhongke Academy, Yali

9787523608050