We live in a world oriented toward greatness, one in which we feel compelled to be among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most famous. Avram Alpert’s new book, “The Good-Enough Life”, explains why no one truly benefits from this competitive social order, and reveals how another way of life is possible, one that is “a good-enough life for all”. He is joined at this event by Christy Wampole for a conversation that delves deeply into this topic.
Alpert posits that our obsession with greatness results in stress and anxiety, damage to our relationships, widespread political and economic inequality, and destruction of the natural world. He describes how to move beyond greatness to create a society in which everyone flourishes. By competing less with each other, each of us can find renewed meaning and purpose, have our material and emotional needs met, and begin to lead more leisurely lives.
Life can never be more than good enough because there will always be accidents and tragedies beyond our control, which is why we must stop dividing the world into winners and losers and ensure that there is a fair share of decency and sufficiency to go around. “The Good-Enough Life” demonstrates how we can work together to cultivate a good-enough life for all instead of tearing ourselves apart in a race to the top of the social pyramid.
About the Speakers:
Avram Alpert is lecturer in the Writing Program at Princeton University and co-editor of Shifter magazine. His books include A Partial Enlightenment: What Modern Literature and Buddhism Can Teach Us about Living Well without Perfection. His work has appeared in publications such as the NYTimes, the Washington Post, and Aeon.
Christy Wampole is Professor in the French and Italian Department at Princeton University. She is the author of The Other Serious: Essays for the new American Generation; Rootedness: The Ramifications of a Metaphor; and Realism: Novel and Nation in 21st Century France. Her opinion pieces and essays have been published in the NYTimes, The New Yorker, The LA Review of Books, and Aeon, among other places.
This event was recorded on April 20, 2022.