![]() ![]() ![]() He is disappointed to see how people now wear the term as a badge of honor. A reminder that the term meritocracy was originally a satirical term invented by writer Michael Young in 1958 to describe a dystopian society. Young intuited that this would create a society divided between smug. His satirical dystopia The Rise of the Meritocracy foresaw a society in which class was dead and your personal merit determined where you landed up. Sandel’s full talk, A New Politics of Hope, is available online here. When the British sociologist Michael Young coined the word meritocracy in 1958, he meant it as criticism. As a critique of meritocracy and an explanation of today’s populist resentment toward educated elites, The Tyranny of Merit is a compelling book. He offers an alternative way of thinking about success - more attentive to the role of luck in human affairs, more conducive to an ethic of humility, and more hospitable to a politics of the common good. This is what makes merit a kind of tyranny. Sandel highlights the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind. Tyranny of the Meritocracy is a must-read for all those who have guessed, but could not prove, that our hypercompetitive approach to higher educationwhich rewards those with the most wealth and privilege and blames the rest for their plightnot only makes a mockery of the term ‘meritocracy’ but endangers our democracy. Sandel argues that to overcome the polarized politics of our time, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalisation and rising inequality. And the consequence is a brew of anger and frustration that has fuelled populist protest, with the triumph of Brexit and election of Donald Trump. Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality give the lie to the promise that "you can make it if you try". We live in an age of winners and losers, where the odds are stacked in favour of the already fortunate.
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