Microlooting, Life at the Bottom, Violence

You can now catch my latest conversation with journalist Meghan Daum and clinical psychologist Andrew Hartz, Ph.D. on the Open Therapy podcast. Links for Spotify and Apple Podcast. I was honored to write the foreword for the 25th anniversary edition of Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass by Theodore Dalrymple. As you can probably tell from the title, the book is about life at the bottom of society. Not just in terms of money but in terms of behavior, values, and daily choices. Drawing on his many years working as a doctor with prison inmates and patients in low-income neighborhoods, Theodore Dalrymple describes how violence, addiction, broken families, and despair are sustained not only by material hardship but by ideas that excuse bad behavior and reject personal responsibility. Dalrymple challenges a comforting story. Many people believe poverty is mainly about a lack of resources or unfair systems. This book argues that culture and norms matter just as much, sometimes more. When society stops expecting discipline, self-control, and accountability, the people who most need those guardrails suffer the most. I read the original version of Life at the Bottom about a decade ago when I was in college. One of the most important books I’ve ever read. Writing this foreword for the 25th anniversary edition feels like coming full circle. First living the world Dalrymple describes, then discovering his work in college, and now helping to bring it to new readers. Strongly recommended. It is available today. You are invited to attend my live event with Freya India, one of my favorite writers. May 13 at 6:30pm. Details and registration here. I have a new piece out in the Wall Street Journal about “microlooting” and the linguistic fashions of the luxury belief class. In a 1955 essay titled “The English Aristocracy,” novelist Nancy Mitford suggested that as goods became more affordable, England’s upper classes could no longer rely on material possessions to distinguish themselves from the masses. Instead, Mitford wrote, “it is solely by their language that the upper classes nowadays are distinguished.” Jia Tolentino and Hasan Piker proved this point last week in a conversation hosted by Nadja Spiegelman at the New York Times. It unfolded in a carefully staged loft that signaled taste and status. Ms. Spiegelman proposed a new word for shoplifting: “microlooting.” Mr. Piker later remarked that “many Americans, I think, are totally oblivious to this political language.” “Stealing” sounds so tawdry. Microlooting is cleaner—a minor offense laundered into a boutique act of political protest Read the whole thing here or here. My new lecture series “The Psychology of Morality” is now available exclusively at Peterson Academy. I delivered six lectures in front of a live studio audience that explore the origins of morality. The course examines the distinction between moral philosophy and moral psychology, showing how emotions and intuitions often guide our judgments more than rational principles. It also investigates frameworks such as Haidt’s moral foundations theory and Gray’s moral dyad theory. The series also covers dark personality traits and their relationship with moral behavior, and concludes by examining the relationship between morality and happiness, sex differences in moral judgment, and moral development across the lifespan. Enroll here for immediate access. Here’s the trailer: On hard work by Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories You can follow me on TikTok here 1. Gen Z are 9.6 times more accepting of violence against speakers than Baby Boomers, and 25X more accepting of violence against speakers than the Silent Generation. Each successive generation is more supportive of violence against speakers than the last. (source). 2. Young women aged 18 to 30 report significantly more negative attitudes toward men than men do toward women. 21 percent of young women say they hold an actively negative view of men, compared with just 7 percent of young men who feel the same about women. (source). 3. In 1870, about 30% of a person’s entire life was spent working—people worked, slept, and died. Today it’s closer to 10%. Thus, in the past 100+ years or so the amount of work in a person’s lifetime has fallen by about 2/3rds. (source). The paperback version of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class is now available. If you have gained any value from this newsletter and want to support my work, please buy a copy today. For yourself. For a friend or a loved one. If you can’t afford it, please support your local library. Order your copy now: Audible (I narrated the audiobook myself)