Meritocracy is a Lie

“In recent decades, the divide between winners and losers has been deepening, poisoning our politics, setting us apart. This divide is partly about inequality. But it's also about the attitudes toward winning and losing that have come with it. Those who landed on top came to believe that their success was their own doing, a measure of their merit, and those who lost out had no one to blame but themselves. This way of thinking about success arises from a seemingly attractive principle. If everyone has an equal chance, the winners deserve their winnings. This is the heart of the meritocratic ideal.”

These words come from a TED Talk given in 2020 by Harvard professor, philosopher, and public intellectual Michael Sandel. He delivered his talk in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdowns, at a moment when polarization seemed to be growing everywhere. We were arguing over vaccines and lockdowns, and we were also confronted with the brutal inequalities of our society. While the wealthy could retreat to isolated homes in the countryside, essential workers earning minimum wage risked their lives to deliver groceries, care for the sick, and drive people to hospitals.

That moment brought Sandel to criticize our merit-based society, first for the obvious reason that not everyone actually has an equal chance. For a meritocracy to work—for people truly to be evaluated according to their abilities and accomplishments—we would all have to begin from roughly the same starting point. Which. of course, we don't.

As Sandel points out, at Ivy League universities there are more students from the top one percent of the income distribution than from the entire bottom half of the country combined.

But Sandel's critique goes much deeper than inequality. He suggests that a merit-based society is itself psychologically and morally dangerous because it produces what he calls “hubris among the winners and humiliation among those who lose out.” It encourages the successful “to inhale too deeply of their success, to forget the luck and good fortune that helped them on their way,” and to look down on those who are less fortunate or less credentialed than themselves.

In other words, the danger isn't simply that some people win and others lose. The danger is what happens to us after we win.

This idea by Sandel is remarkably Jewish and is written explicitly in our portion Eikev. I’m curious if Sandel, who is Jewish himself, drew this inspiration from a thinker and writer named Moses.

Our portion, Eikev, is another chapter in Moses' last speech to the Israelites which makes up most of the book of Deuteronomy — Devarim.

In this chapter, Moses warns the Israelites, not of failure, but rather of success. 

פֶּן־תֹּאכַ֖ל וְשָׂבָ֑עְתָּ וּבָתִּ֥ים טֹבִ֛ים תִּבְנֶ֖ה וְיָשָֽׁבְתָּ׃

“…when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,’’

וּבְקָֽרְךָ֤ וְצֹֽאנְךָ֙ יִרְבְּיֻ֔ן וְכֶ֥סֶף וְזָהָ֖ב יִרְבֶּה־לָּ֑ךְ וְכֹ֥ל אֲשֶׁר־לְךָ֖ יִרְבֶּֽה׃

“and when your herds and flocks grow larger and your silver and gold increase, and all you have is multiplied,”

וְרָ֖ם לְבָבֶ֑ךָ וְשָֽׁכַחְתָּ֙ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ הַמּוֹצִיאֲךָ֛ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֥ית עֲבָדִֽים׃

“then your heart will become proud, and you will forget Adonai, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

It was exactly when the Israelites overcame hardship and had begun living a life of prosperity, that their “hearts became proud” that they had become corrupt. 

A few verses later, Moses goes deeper in his warning and says:  

וְאָמַרְתָּ֖ בִּלְבָבֶ֑ךָ כֹּחִי֙ וְעֹ֣צֶם יָדִ֔י עָ֥שָׂה לִ֖י אֶת־הַחַ֥יִל הַזֶּֽה׃

“You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”

Here, Moses warns about exactly what Michael Sandel suggests is polarizing and aiming to destroy U.S. society and many other societies in our world. People, once on top, attribute their success to their own doing alone. They don’t consider their “luck and good fortune.”

That “luck and good fortune,” in Moses’ words, is:

"וְזָֽכַרְתָּ֙ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ כִּ֣י ה֗וּא הַנֹּתֵ֥ן לְךָ֛ כֹּ֖חַ לַעֲשׂ֣וֹת חָ֑יִל לְמַ֨עַן הָקִ֧ים אֶת־בְּרִית֛וֹ אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּ֥ע לַאֲבֹתֶ֖יךָ כַּיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּֽה׃ {פ}

“But remember God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”

Moses’ point here is that success is never entirely our own creation.

According to Sandel, there is an implicit insult in the saying, “You can make it if you try”— not just because not everyone gets the same opportunity to try, but also because the end result, success, becomes a reward for people who are implicitly considered better than others, and it carries with it the idea that “your failure is your fault.”

There is no wonder, therefore, that this constant insult creates class resentment, which in turn contributes to the rise of populist movements.

Moses continues his speech to further develop this warning and dives even deeper into it.

אַל־תֹּאמַ֣ר בִּלְבָבְךָ֗ בַּהֲדֹ֣ף יְהֹוָה֩ אֱלֹהֶ֨יךָ אֹתָ֥ם ׀ מִלְּפָנֶ֘יךָ֮ לֵאמֹר֒ בְּצִדְקָתִי֙ הֱבִיאַ֣נִי יְהֹוָ֔ה לָרֶ֖שֶׁת אֶת־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַזֹּ֑את וּבְרִשְׁעַת֙ הַגּוֹיִ֣ם הָאֵ֔לֶּה יְהֹוָ֖ה מוֹרִישָׁ֥ם מִפָּנֶֽיךָ׃

“After God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “God has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that God is going to drive them out before you.” 

Here, Moses warns against what we could call “Moral Righteousness.” Moses warns against attributing a victory in a war to the nation’s own righteousness. We won because we are better. We won because we are right. We won because we are morally superior.  

This is such a dangerous sentiment, whether it is taken by a nation or by an individual. 

Moses’s speech progresses from a warning against saying, “I am successful because I am good at what I do” to the warning against saying something worse and far more dangerous —  “I am successful because I am good.” Do not confuse victory with virtue. Do not confuse success with deservingness. 

Moses teaches us that success leads to self-congratulation, which in turn leads to moral superiority. What we must remember, especially in our time, is that moral superiority leads to the dehumanization of the other.

Sandel finishes his talk like this:

“Do I morally deserve the talents that enable me to flourish? Is it my doing that I live in a society that prizes the talents I happen to have? Or is that my good luck? 

Insisting that my success is my due makes it hard to see myself in other people's shoes.

Appreciating the role of luck in life can prompt a certain humility. There but for the accident of birth, or the grace of God, or the mystery of fate, go I. This spirit of humility is the civic virtue we need now.”

Moses couldn’t have said it better.