The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness

by Ichiro Kishimi

YOUTH: Well, I don’t know. I am alive, right here and now. ‘I’, who is no one else but me, am alive right here. But even so, I don’t really feel that I have worth. PHILOSOPHER: Can you describe in words why you do not feel that you have worth? YOUTH: I suppose it’s what you’ve been referring to as interpersonal relations. From childhood up to the present, I have always been belittled by people around me, especially my parents, as a poor excuse for a little brother. They have never really tried to recognise me for who I am. You say that worth is something one gives to oneself. But that’s just an impracticable theory. For example, at the library where I work, for the most part my job is just sorting the returned books and putting them back on the shelves. It’s routine work that anyone could do once they’ve been taught. If I stopped going to work, my boss would have no trouble finding someone to replace me. I am needed only for the unskilled labour I provide, and it doesn’t actually matter at all if it is ‘I’ who is working there or someone else, or a machine for that matter. No one is requiring ‘this me’ in particular. In such circumstances, would you have confidence in yourself? Would you be able to have a true sense of worth?