Systematically diagnosing the disease called ‘modern’
A treatment that offers hope called 'comfort'

Amid the complexity and uncertainty of modern society, many people are struggling to find peace and stability.
In the midst of this, the latest work, 『How to Survive in Modern Society』, written by world-renowned bestselling author Alain de Botton and the School of Life, has been published.
This book will provide modern people with the wisdom and insight they need to navigate uncertain times.
In recent years, we have witnessed a deepening of global anxiety and turmoil, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession, political instability, and seemingly endless wars.
Moreover, due to information overload in the digital age and the influence of social media, individual mental health has long emerged as a serious social problem.


But even without discussing recent global issues or the situations faced by individuals, this book argues that the modern world itself is an age of anxiety and confusion.
"Survival in Modern Society" delves deeply into the roots of the anxiety and confusion of this modern era and systematically analyzes the various problems of modern society.

Modern times have brought about remarkable advancements, abundance, and benefits in technology, medicine, transportation, and industry.
At the same time, the blind faith in progress, the pursuit of perfection, information overload, and social expectations and comparisons have left people feeling mentally empty, pressured, fearful of failure, frustrated, and jealous.
This book provides a detailed and systematic analysis of the historical, philosophical, and cultural processes and stages through which the modern era reached its current state, helping readers gain a clearer understanding of modern society.


“The good news is that you don’t have to suffer alone.
Although we each suffer, our circumstances are a product of our times, not of our own minds.
By learning to diagnose our situation, we come to realize that we are living in turbulent times, not of individual madness, but of unprecedented intensity and societal turmoil.
We also come to accept that modernity is a kind of disease, and that understanding modernity is the cure for it.” (Page 20)

We suffer when we feel an unexplained anxiety.
But knowing the cause and source of your anxiety can give you the courage to accept it and move forward to find a breakthrough.
This book helps us understand the complex problems of modern society, and it also contains practical methods and helpful suggestions for overcoming the problems that cause anxiety and confusion.
This book will serve as a valuable guide for modern people who endure each difficult day, consumed by inexplicable anxiety and endless confusion, and for all those who seek to resolve this anxiety.

Many of the changes that have occurred in modern times are incredibly exciting, even thrilling.
'Modern' is still a word that connotes a state of glamour, desire, and ambitious aspiration.
… … But at the same time, the advent of the modern era is also a history of tragedy.
Our new freedom came at a very high price.
We have never come this close to collective madness or planetary extinction.
Modernity has mercilessly devastated our inner and outer landscapes.
--- p.14

Modernity may have enriched us materially, but it has also exacted a tremendous emotional toll.
It alienated us, fostered jealousy, and multiplied shame.
It divided us, made us bewildered, made us smile insincerely, and made us angry and bitter.
--- p.20

We are still learning to discover and maintain our own identity, even amidst cleverly designed pressures to conform.
We all know enough about the desire to make money, and we devote most of our lives to making money.
The challenge now before us is to cultivate a corresponding ambition around an activity that has so far been largely ignored: shopping.
Shopping is a fundamental issue that underlies the entire socio-economic reality of modern times.
--- p.39

The conflict between work and home life isn't due to our incompetence or lack of motivation.
We are simply living in a period of history where two huge, opposing themes are colliding.
Caring for and raising a family requires a lot of time and effort.
Likewise, work, efficiency, profit, and competition require a lot of time and effort.
Both are based on important insights, but they exclude each other.
We deserve great sympathy.
--- p.125

Although we are interested in wealth and salary, this interest is not based on 'materialism'.
We simply live in a world where owning certain material goods has become the only way to obtain the emotional rewards we crave deep down.
What we pursue is not things or titles.
It's heartbreaking, really, that what we're after is a feeling of being "noted" and "popular," a feeling that can only be achieved through material means.
--- p.185

If we knew how to derive unique value from what we have already experienced and seen, we would not need to have so many experiences.
Our drive to constantly move may be a confession of our inability to fully process our inner experiences.
The reason I feel like I need a lot of new experiences is because I haven't been able to properly absorb what I've already experienced.
--- p.196

Busy people avoid different types of tasks.
They are busy like a swarm of bees, but they don't have time to reflect on their true feelings about what they are doing.
They endlessly postpone investigating the direction they are going and are lazy about understanding the purpose of life.
Their busyness is a subtle but powerful form of distraction, a kind of laziness in fact.
--- p.204

In a perfectionist's world, even living as the most ordinary of beings feels incompetent and humiliating.
Filled with flaws, obsessions, mistakes, and irrationalities, we find ourselves in a cursed night where we constantly ruminate on our shortcomings, deeming ourselves unforgivable.
What we really need is to remember that the way we exist now is the only possibility we have.
We must remember that stumbling, making mistakes, regretting, and realizing things too late are inherent characteristics of most imperfectly evolved, clumsy animals.
--- p.231

We have never been 'me'.
We have only borrowed a part of the universe for a while, and over time it will become something else of equal value.
Like all living things, we are made from fragments of stars.
We have traveled between supernovae.
We are as old as the universe.
'I' am just a passing phase.
What the Earth has lent us will, in time, stir new life again.
There is no need to be embarrassed by these facts.
Scientific reality can inspire philosophical thought that is far more comforting than any book or prayer.
We don't have to hold on to life so tightly.
We are never whole, and sooner or later we will return to being small pieces.
--- p.256

We must reach out to our suffering fellow citizens of today.
Being able to choose but choosing wrongly, being able to move but being afraid to even flinch, knowing that a major hypothesis is wrong but lacking the courage or mental fortitude to think of an alternative, knowing that there are many people around us who dislike us but worrying excessively about what they think of us – this is not our failure, it is human nature.
--- p.285

The unique agony of modernity comes from seeing a better future, from knowing that suffering is not inevitable, from seeing a lifeline on the horizon, but recognizing that by the time it arrives, we will be dead.
--- p.294

The present may be a time of confusion, but the inevitable future direction is clear.
Rather than continuing to suffer in a cycle of constant, repetitive motions, like a hamster wheel, we must gradually illuminate the fundamental darkness in a more nuanced way, in keeping with our own high potential, and discover ways to escape the perils of modern life.

--- p.295