Is it truly bad to be a loser? The ancient Taoist sages loved to mock social conventions, seeing them as hypocritical and often hindering true fulfillment and happiness. For example, many consider chasing wealth and fame to be good and ambition to be admirable.
But are these ideas objective truth? Or, as the Taoists would argue, are these just man-made concepts that do more harm than good? The Taoist sages urged people to reject social conventions that cause harm and misery, even if it meant being judged as a “loser” in today’s terms.
Yang-chu, for example, a philosopher who appears in the Taoist scripture Lieh Tzu, explained that attaining wealth or reputation is futile. Sure, both can be beneficial. For instance, wealth generally leads to more opportunities for pleasure, and a good reputation may open doors that usually remain closed.
However, there are no guarantees. And, in many cases, chasing wealth and reputation costs us more than it provides in return, as it’s a stressful ordeal. Just imagine the energy it takes to amass resources or the uphill fight trying to maintain a good reputation, which is predominantly out of your control, as people’s opinions are as fickle as the wind.
Moreover, according to Yang-Chu, we destroy ourselves in our attempts to climb the social ladder at the expense of happiness. In today’s hustle culture, chasing ‘success’ is like a religious duty. People push each other to achieve, often at the cost of their well-being, leading to stress, anxiety, and burnout.
Society glorifies “winners” and treats “losers” as pariahs, almost as if not achieving is a moral failing. But is this fair? Is being a “loser” really so bad?
We’ve discussed the concept of the modern-day loser several times on this channel. This video sheds light on it through the lens of Taoist philosophy. We’ll be looking at the Taoist text Lieh-Tzu (or Liezi), specifically the creative translation by Taoist scholar Eva Wong, which, in my opinion, has some interesting perspectives regarding this topic.
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So, what does it mean to be a loser these days? Dictionaries have countless definitions of the word ‘loser. ’ First and foremost, a ‘loser’ means someone who ‘loses,’ such as losing a game.
However, the term is currently used as a derogatory term to indicate someone unsuccessful or even unattractive. It’s not just someone who failed at a particular pursuit; it has become a societal archetype characterized by failure, not living up to expectations of success and achievement. Being a loser seems to have more weight than just “having failed.
” It’s like having done something terrible; it’s almost as if not being ambitious in today’s achievement society is a form of blasphemy. A fairly recent Dutch article tells the story of Joost and Iris, two unrelated people who claim not to be ambitious. Joost argues that his attitude has led to stigmatization.
He feels that if you’re labeled an unambitious person, you’re someone who refuses to reach his full potential and keeps himself small in a world of unlimited possibilities. Iris feels that not being ambitious is a curse word these days, and thus, she often feels guilty for her lack of ambition. The article also features author Marian Donner, who argues, and I quote: “The Western world is so focused on becoming the best version of yourself.
It always has to be more and better, in every aspect. ” End quote. Ambition is a great virtue these days.
For many, it’s an important, almost obligatory factor in being attractive dating material. And “just doing your job” is often not what employers want to hear; they want someone willing to grow and self-improve constantly, on top of their job. Striking is the apparent hostility towards people who don’t conform to the cult of ambition.
Perhaps that’s why a derogatory word for people who don’t achieve much exists. It’s almost as if you’re committing a crime by not pursuing ambitions. The meaning of good and evil has changed throughout the ages, evolving based on factors like society, religion, and culture.
In the past, in a Christian context, for example, being good meant being virtuous, and being bad meant being sinful. But, in today’s society, have success and failure become the new virtue and vice? Have losers become the new sinners?
In other words, are you a bad person if you’re not ambitious and aren’t achieving? Considering current societal values, such as ‘becoming the best version of yourself’ and ‘always improving’ or, as philosopher Byung-Chul Han puts it, constant ‘self-optimization,’ refusing to engage in these things goes against the grain. When achieving is a ‘good,’ not doing so (or not aiming to do so) is, so it seems, a ‘bad:’ an attitude that people like Joost and Iris experienced firsthand.
Moreover, many seem to believe that one’s lack of success is their fault; they just didn’t work hard enough. They just didn’t put in the effort to succeed. If they would have worked harder, they would have made it, just like that small minority who did.
There’s this collective belief that everyone can succeed if they work hard for it. But is that true? And even if it’s true, is there anything wrong with people like Joost and Iris choosing not to be ambitious?
And if so, why then? The Taoist sages described in the Lieh Tzu have different views on the matter. According to them, pursuing material success is a waste of time, and judging people based on their achievements is a big mistake.
In the story ‘Effort Argues with Destiny,’ Effort and Destiny appear as characters discussing who’s more influential: effort or destiny. Effort claims that his achievements are better than Destiny’s, but Destiny takes this into question. As a counterargument, Destiny recalls countless examples that show that neither effort nor talent decided people’s trajectories.
For instance, he noted corrupt officials who are rich, honest, excellent workers who are poor, talented, virtuous people who remain unknown, and the untalented who rise to the top. Destiny continued, saying, and I quote: “If you are as effective as you say, then why don’t you make the hard-working people rich? Why don’t you give virtuous people a long and prosperous life?
Why are the intelligent and able people not employed, and why do stupid people occupy important places in government? ” End quote. The story reminds me of being a content creator on YouTube and the ongoing discussion about whether success (or a lack of it) depends mainly on a creator’s effort or the algorithm.
Many argue that success on this platform is almost entirely in your own hands; you just have to make good videos and create great titles and thumbnails, and you’ll get there. And some claim everyone can do this as long as they work hard. For these people, success boils down to effort.
Moreover, if you happen to fail on YouTube, well, it’s your fault. Blaming the algorithm or other factors outside yourself isn’t fair; it’s all on you or, at least, for the most part. Many channels follow advice from so-called experts.
They create good content and craft compelling thumbnails and titles like their successful peers. Yet, they remain invisible, disproving the experts’ claims. At the same time, saying “Hawk Tuah” during a street interview lands someone in a partnership with Jake Paul and makes that person’s podcast one of the most watched in the world.
In our achievement-driven society, we overestimate the power of effort and the amount of control we have over our success, as if succeeding depends almost entirely on hard work. Survivorship bias is an essential factor in such reasoning. Sure, some indeed make it, but does that mean everyone will?
Does that deny the role of destiny in their success? From the Taoist perspective, you cannot flat-out deny the role of destiny. Luck and chance are always deciding factors.
Not everyone is blessed with high intelligence, creative talent, a stimulating environment, good mentors, et cetera. We don’t get to choose the cards we’re dealt with. Thus, many we consider ‘losers’ may simply have been unlucky; they may have suffered factors beyond their control that significantly shaped their fate.
As mentioned earlier, an achievement-driven society values ambition, success, accomplishment, and, in many cases, material wealth and fame. If you have all of those, you’ve made it. You’re considered a successful person.
A loser, however, lacks these things. A loser, therefore, is seen as someone less worthy, someone of lower value. The unfortunate term “low-value male” has become common lately, describing an unsuccessful man who is unattractive because of his lack of success; it’s someone you don’t want to be, someone worthy of contempt.
In the chapter ‘Fortune and Worth,’ Taoist sage Tung-kuo makes short work of the societal concept of being worthy and valuable. I’ve discussed this story in a previous video, but I believe it’s also relevant to this topic. Two friends met each other again after a long time.
One of them had become a successful, wealthy man. The other remained poor and insignificant. The unsuccessful friend complained about his fate, which annoyed the successful one, who argued he might simply be more virtuous and, therefore, more worthy in the eyes of others.
But the sage corrected him, saying that worth cannot be measured by social or political success. These things are not something we control. Some people simply have more luck than others.
According to the sage, both men were buried in illusions of worth and value based on social norms. The idea that material success, fame, or achievement equates to worth is strong and widespread. However, from a Taoist viewpoint, it’s also a social construct.
It’s not an objective truth. It’s simply what people have agreed upon. The term ‘loser’ has no real meaning; it’s just a label based on society’s focus on shallow measures of success.
Unfortunately, society’s emphasis on success and achievement is substantial, causing people to suffer. But why do we place so much importance on success and failure? And aren’t we wasting our lives being concerned with this dichotomy?
Despite societal ideals, the Taoist sages believed anticipating success and failure is a waste of time. Moreover, the Lieh Tzu dedicates a chapter to why these concepts are not worth chasing, as doing so only causes anxiety. The chapter ‘Success and Failure’ doubles down on the observation that success and failure are largely out of our control.
We never know beforehand if we’ll succeed or fail. We can work ourselves into an early grave; a desired outcome is never guaranteed. Yet, in pursuit of it, we may exploit ourselves for years, chasing success and wealth, until we break down, leaving irreparable damage to our bodies and minds.
We’ll be anxious, obsessed with succeeding, constantly worrying about the future. But gaining success itself isn’t the problem. Achievement isn’t bad.
What’s bad is the relentless striving towards it, the attachment to a desired outcome. According to the Lieh Tzu, we’re better off accepting the role of destiny. I quote: “Only those who accept the natural flow of events will not be concerned about life and death or anxious about praise or blame.
Intelligent people will often want to calculate the likelihood of success and failure before they take action. However, their chances of succeeding are often not very different from those of people who do not think about the odds. ” End quote.
Despite human influence, things will happen as they happen. Some people won’t succeed, no matter how hard they try. Others succeed without doing much for it.
This just goes to show how relative being a ‘loser’ is. Destiny decides we can’t all be winners, no matter how hard we strive for it. So, why put so much emphasis on achieving an ideal that is ultimately not in our control?
But suppose we let go of the attachment to success and failure, seeing it for the capricious phenomena they are. In that case, the derogatory term ‘loser’ is rendered meaningless — it loses its weight. Sure, we’ll still be losers in the view of others.
They may see us as failures, lazy, unmotivated, et cetera. But according to the Taoist sages, that’s not something to be concerned about as reputation is also among the things ultimately not up to us. The Taosts, however, don’t say you shouldn’t pursue anything or give things your best shot or that you should neglect yourself.
The Lieh Tzu posits that although chasing riches can injure you, poverty can also hurt you. But clinging to outcomes causes suffering. The Lieh Tzu’s viewpoint is this: people who manage to accept destiny and detach from outcomes will be calm and at peace in the face of adversity.
Moreover, and this is my own addition, being okay with being a ‘loser’ means letting go of the fear of failure and the fear of not conforming to societal ideals—fears that may be stopping you from truly being yourself. So, what do you think? Are the Taoist sages wise in their approach of success and failure?
Or do they, perhaps, cowardly resign, embracing passivity disguised as wisdom? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for watching.
