Book Review
The Tyranny of Merit
Author: Michael J Sandel
Merit is not always right. It generates winners and
losers and often creates hubris among the winners and resentment among the
losers. Moreover, there is something immoral about handing over the world to a
group of people who possess certain qualities (merits) just by luck.
Michael Sandel is a political philosopher at Harvard
University and author of many books. His latest book, The Tyranny of Merit
[2020], is an incisive critique of meritocracy.
Our world places much premium on merit.
Students are admitted to premier institutions on the basis of their merit which
is assessed by highly challenging tests. Jobs are allotted also on the basis of
merit. Merit is important, no doubt. It ensures efficiency and fairness. Those
who are more capable should be given greater responsibilities. It also promotes
aspiration and individual freedom (freedom to forge one’s own destiny). It is
also morally comforting: we feel that we get what we deserve. Fine enough. But
meritocracy has its dark side too.
Sandel argues that meritocracy is not a remedy for
inequality but a justification for inequality. It is not much different
from aristocracy which justified and sustained inequality on the basis of
birth. You are born into a particular family without your choice or knowledge and
that accident determines your fate: that is aristocracy. If you are born rich,
you are a winner in that system. Otherwise you are a goner. You have no choice.
Meritocracy gives us the illusion of choice. If
you work hard, you can make it: meritocracy exhorts. Really? Sandel doesn’t
agree. He thinks that the role of effort is inflated in meritocracy. Your
talents matter more, much more. And your talents are not your choice. Your
talents are your luck. Letting luck determine one’s destiny is no better than
letting the accident of birth do it.
Sandel gives detailed statistical and other researched
data to show how meritocracy has led to credentialism. Credentialism is
belief or reliance on academic or other formal qualifications as the best
measure of a person’s intelligence or ability to do a particular job. Many
American Presidents like Clinton and Obama emphasised on the importance of education
in forging one’s destiny. Sandel argues that this focus on education is not
fair. It shifts the blame saying: “Inequality is not a failure of the system;
it is a failure of you.”
This blame-shifting engenders many severe problems the
foremost of which is self-hatred or loss of self-esteem. It is the resentment
of such people who felt left out because of insufficient educational
qualifications that led to the victory of Donald Trump as President and to Brexit,
argues Sandel. He has the statistics too to prove his point.
Educational qualification needn’t matter so much,
however. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee was an Oxford graduate. But his
foreign secretary Ernest Bevin had left school at the age of 11. The leader of
the House of Commons at that time, Herbert Morrison, did not have education
beyond the age of 14. Aneurin Bevan, health minister, left school at 13 and
worked as a miner.
This is not to discredit education, of course.
Education is important. But there are other equally important matters too. The
world should belong to everyone, even the less gifted. And the handicapped. And
the disabled. And… That’s important too.
Sandel shows us that even academic scores have a
correlation with wealth. “The higher your family income, the higher your SAT
score,” he puts it as bluntly as that. There are people who pay as much as
$1000 per hour for one-to-one tutoring for SAT. Academics is a billion-dollar
industry. Therefore, education is not all about the intellect.
Meritocracy is not as much about merit as we pretend. Many
other factors are at play. Your success in a meritocratic system is not as much
a result of your own effort as you imagine. There are many more talented people
out there who don’t get the opportunities you got.
If the successful people internalise that fact – that they
are not all self-made winners – half the problem may be solved. After all,
changes begin from attitudes. If I know that I am here as a winner because of
sheer good fortune, I will be more concerned about my fellow human beings. That
concern can make a lot of difference to the world.
This is an excellent book that deserves to be read by
all the winners and policy makers. Almost all the examples and research data come
from America. But the vision is
universal.
PS. Thanks
to Jose Maliekal, professor of philosophy, author of Standstill
Utopias and a good friend for sending me a free digital copy of this
book.
I cannot agree more. The divide that meritocracy creates, can lead to loathe for the system as well as oneself. It begins right away in schools. At least Indian schools. The realization that my achievement is more a matter of my luck or whatever will at least keep me grounded and more compassionate. After all, there is no dearth of talent. It's the other things that don't add up.
ReplyDeleteThe author cites statistics to show that the students of good universities in the US are rather contemptuous of their less educated counterparts. So this happens not only in India.
DeleteHumility is a virtue that the author mentions explicitly at the end. So you sync with him wholly.