I picked up this book at Carmichael Books in Louisville. It
sat there, quite innocuous with a rather mundane title and a rather funny
looking cover. I’d read about the book previously and the topic looked
entertaining, so I bought it. Little did I know that this was going to change
my world view completely.
The Antidote questions, in the first chapter, our obsession
with being happy, and in so doing it also questions the underlying folk wisdom
that we take for granted. Such things as our cult like adhesion to the western
definition of happiness, our goal setting habit, our aversion to anything that
smacks of negativity, our fear of failure, our discomfort with death, and our
deep seated dread of uncertainty. In eight well researched and written
chapters, Mr. Burkeman dives in and dives in deep. Unlike most books
investigating a specific subject, Mr. Burkeman does not just cite and
regurgitate academic research results, although he does a quite reasonable job
of that. He dives into experiencing a number of topics that challenges the
status quo and certainly places him into some uncomfortable situations, all in
order to conduct research for the book. Some of the more satisfying portions of
the book are his descriptions of his own feelings and mental states as he is
conducting his research.
Another source of reading pleasure are his in depth
interviews with people. Rather than just doing a cursory review and restatement
of the salient points of the interviews, Mr. Burkeman goes into deeper
descriptive elocution of the interviews, this part of the chapters were
wonderful peeks into the conversation and gives the reader a snapshot of the
discussion. His subjects were eclectic and representative of the fascinating
world that he had jumped into with both feet.
The breadth of the book is broad, Mr. Burkeman discusses the
Stoic philosophers and philosophy, the Buddhist philosophy and how the two
correlate. He examines the impossible situation that we force ourselves into
when we adapt the ubiquitous and pedantic habit of goal setting, and how our
fear of uncertainty reinforces our grip onto that goal setting habit. He then
delves into our fear of failure, and how some have embraced failure as a guide
and utilize that examination of failure as the guiding principle towards
achieving tranquility, in place of happiness. He invokes the Stoic practice of
looking at the most negative possible outcome in order to gain perspective and
alleviate fears, fear of uncertainty, and submitting to the Stoic practice of
dichotomy of control. He also dives in on the Stoic practice of Memento Mori,
which forces us to examine the role of death and dying in our culture and attempts
to get our minds to accept the finality of death and to overcome our fear of
death. I must admit that this part of the book was particularly difficult for
me, yet this practice does allow me to understand this previously taboo
subject. I am still working on this part of my own thoughts.
The Antidote is not an easy read, which s what makes it
special. The integrity of Mr. Burkeman who made sure that he had skin in the
game as he did research was a singular point of merit; it made me that much
more interested because he made the effort. Mr. Burkeman’s epilogue in the
Antidote was matter of fact and rational. It did not appeal to nostalgia nor
emotional hysteria, instead he remained Stoic in his story telling, which is the
very attractive quality that permeates the entire book.
