Kyle Hoffman’s Reviews > The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? > Status Update

Ch.7 - One of the most significant casualties of modern meritocratic ideals is the erosion of dignity of work. Meritocratic society suggests that the market value of a job correlates with its contribution to the common good. Thus, “the pain of unemployment was not simply that the jobless lacked an income but that they were deprived of the opportunity to contribute to the common good.”

Ch.6 - Man, loving this book. Sandel effectively argues that merit is an ineffective sorting mechanism, specifically in the way that higher education serves as a meritocratic sorting mechanism in our modern society. It promotes an impractical culture of hoop jumping that does not align with the common good. It devalues the work that the working class does. Sandel has convinced me in every way.

Ch.5 - Is merit a good distribution method? Ironically, “meritocracy” originated as a derogatory. Just 70-ish years ago a British thinker warned of a “meritocracy,” as a bad way to run a society. Yet, somehow, it is the prevailing belief system today. Makes you think how that came to be, and if was shaped by those who benefit from it. The ethics of a meritocracy are incredibly unclear and suck. Free-will? meh

The center-left has looked down on those without college degrees and driven them to political margins. It shames those without degrees for their own lacks of success. It condescends. The Democratic Party is no longer the party of the people, but of the technocrats. Most convincing was Sendel’s argument against the notion that uneducation is the root of Trump’s popularity, climate change being a potent example.

Ch. 2 - The history of merit can be traced back to Christian schism. Is one placed in heaven or hell because of their behavior? Or are they predestined? Which ideal yields better outcomes? Sandel argues for the humility and mystery that comes with the belief that the cosmos does not match merit with success. It makes sense for the successful to argue their success derives from their behavior.

Ch.1 - Sandel diagnoses the American political landscape, which most can agree is bleak, with having been stripped of what should be its core—morality. He argues this is because of poor technocratic rule that values market-based results that do not reflect the American public’s reality or the common good. This populist dread can manifest in the support of two sides of, ironically, the same coin: Bernie or Trump.

Intro: Awesome. Sandel uses the college admissions scandal, something that is universally hated, to beg the validity of meritocracy, or even more fundamentally, the validity of merit. People born on third base think they hit a triple. People born on the bench think they struck out. Sandel suggests that a falsely accepted notion of merit is at the core of a lot of our problems. I’m excited to hear his argument.