20 January 2021
The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?
These are dangerous times for democracy. We live in an age of winners and losers, where the odds are stacked in favour of the already fortunate. Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality give the lie to the promise that "you can make it if you try". 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.
Michael J. 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. Sandel highlights the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind. 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.
| Title | : | The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? |
| Edition Language | : | English |
| ISBN | : | 9780241407608 |
| Format Type | : |
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Professor Sandel asserts with this work that the American meritocracy is an illusion, one he adeptly parses, while providing important insight into our national political dynamics, specifically, the s...
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Sandel argues that the shift to a meritocratic system, which seemed so just in comparison to inherited rights or other ‘systems,’ in fact has two critical flaws in its implementation. First, parti...
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A philosophical goldmine. This is the book I'm going to be giving to all my cerebral friends for Christmas this year. Political elites all over America NEED to understand this book.I grew up poor. Too...
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I loved this book. I think it is Sandel's best yet. He is one of the world's great philosophers for a mass audience so, as ever, the prose is clear and engaging. I devoured it in two sittings. I parti...
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The past couple decades have seen an absurd divide in every facet of human interaction, especially in the United States. The sources of news, the ability to sort facts, the ideals of society, the role...
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Every single book authored by Michael Sandel has transformed the way I perceive the moral and political world around me and this book was no exception. To me, this book was the best analysis of the 20...