A belief in meritocracy makes us selfish

It has seemed obvious to me for a very long time that the Bill Gates, Richard Bransons and Elon Musks of this world are not the exceptional geniuses they are sometimes painted to be but individuals who have had the luck to be in the right place and the right time for the talents and perspectives that they had to prosper. The corollary of this is that there are dozen, in fact probably thousands or even millions of people with a similar level of skill and insight and ability to all of those who 'make it' in whatever field who have simply not had the background or the opportunities (often delivered by sheer fluke) to make the money or come to the prominence that the lionised have. I seems my observation and reflection may be being borne out.

Furthermore, the idea that nurtures this belief in the exceptional deservingness of these men (as it nearly always is) is actually bad for us as societies for ...

...a growing body of research in psychology and neuroscience suggests that believing in meritocracy makes people more selfish, less self-critical and even more prone to acting in discriminatory ways. Meritocracy is not only wrong; it’s bad.

Which suggests that we should be spreading the awareness of 'success' as a product most prominently of the vicissitudes of life, biases in the social system and favourable accumulation of good fortune. We need to help people at large to realise that there are many of us who could do just as well if we had been in the right place at the right time.

Now, that can sound a bit like 'the politics of envy' -and it could of course fuel such a thing. However, I'm not sure that some of that is not called for. But we could develop an attitude of "Well ,good for you, lucky you: but don't go around thinking you are so much better than others; be aware of your good fortune and be humble, recognise that so many others are just as deserving but without the breaks you have had and act accordingly".

It might also make us less squeamish about recognising that the monetary accumulations that come with many versions of 'success' are also products of good fortune and the tendencies for 'more to become more' as illustrated in the game of monopoly -in other words the accumulative nature of what in economics is called rent.



A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you | Aeon Ideas: