Renewing the Dignity of Work: A Review of the Tyranny of Merit

In the book The Tyranny of Merit, the renowned Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel sets out to explore the origins of the recent populist sentiment in Western democracies.

How can we explain the public distrust in social, economic and social institutions that we see in the West?

Both Brexit and the recent presidential elections in the United States point towards the fact that many people no longer believe the stories about upward mobility and economic success that are continually reinforced in popular culture. It is clear that trust in the credibility of many of our institutions, experts and decision makers has been eroding.

The Problem: How Did We Get Here?

Sandel’s diagnosis of these issues stem from our unwavering support in the meritocratic system that governs our society. The belief that individuals, regardless of the social standing in which they are born, can rise as far as their talents can take them. A validation of the ‘rags to riches’ stories that are well known in our public consciousness.

As inequalities of wealth and income rise in many developed countries, and social mobility stagnates, we begin to see the dark side of this meritocratic ideal. It entrenches and justifies the pride of the ‘winners’ while solidifying the guilt and shame of the least well off. Moreover, those who achieve success tend to see their lot as a direct result of their own doing. It emboldens them with a sense of meritocratic hubris, which can lead them to look down those who have less social standing.

The meritocratic logic is that everyone deserves what they get.

You may object that people’s social standing and wealth is justified because our society permits upward mobility and rewards hard work. Where one ends up is ultimately their responsibility.

Of course, there is truth to that statement. However, Sandel recognizes the impediments people face when aiming to move up the social ladder. Namely, those who have existing wealth and power often mold the system in their favor. This occurs most explicitly when those with the means to do so can buy their kids way into elite colleges. We saw this with the college admissions cheating scandal. Moreover, having access to the right connections, social and community support, and better schooling gives some individuals an inherent advantage over others.

Irrespective of how well our societies enable enable upward mobility, Sandel’s main thesis is to question the ideal of meritocracy in and of itself.

Let’s look at two problems he identifies.

1.The Role of Luck

While our hard work and ambition play a role in our success, we can’t ignore the arbitrariness of several key elements that are out of our control. We don’t choose whether we are born into a wealthy or poor family, our family upbringing or genetics. Random life events sometimes can either provide us with good fortune or derail our long-sought after plans.

Grit and determination do matter. However, isn’t it also true that one can work tirelessly long hours and not see the lucky break that they deserve?

In addition, we can’t claim credit for the particular talents society values. The book looks at the case of Lebron James. As a super basketball player living in a society that rewards the game of basketball, he is generously rewarded for his talents ($42 million/year to be exact). But, if Lebron was born in Renaissance Florence, a period of time which valued artists, sculptors and fresco paintings, his talents as an elite basketball player wouldn’t pay off financially.

2. A Question of Value(s)

Economists will claim that the most efficient way to financially reward individuals is to allocate their income in a way that aligns with the supply and demand of the market. However, efficient outcomes are not necessarily ethical or just. They don’t always align with our values and morals.

The hit TV show Breaking Bad looks at the story of Walter White. It assesses his transformation from a modest earning high school teacher to a high-income narcotics dealer. Although the market rewards him for being a drug dealer, we wouldn’t say that this profession creates more value to society than that of a high school teacher.

His new job as a drug dealer in fact leaves people worse off through addictions and damage to the health of others. The point is the market makes no ethical judgements- it is morally neutral. It doesn’t tell us what contributes to the common good.

A recent example to highlight this idea is the discrepancy between market rewards and morals is in the 2008 financial crisis. Many financiers profited off the vulnerability of others by knowingly selling risky investments. The speculation bubble popped, leaving the average person to loose a lot of money while enriching the bankers through the ‘too big to fail’ bailouts.

Contributive Justice and the Common Good

To be clear Sandel is not advocating to a return to earlier forms of social organization. What he is ultimately attempting to do is to get us to rethink success and the contributions our work provides to common good.

He is trying to restore the dignity of work.

He makes it clear that every job, especially those ‘low-skill’ workers that we look down upon, is fulfilling the essential needs of society. This sentiment is nicely summed up by Martin Luther King Jr.,

One day our society will come to respect the sanitation worker if it is to survive, for the person who picks up our garbage, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician, for if he doesn’t do his job, diseases are rampant

The book goes beyond mere technocratic policy solutions. Sandel wants to begin a dialogue about how we can restore social solidarity and community by respecting the significance that others provide our society through their work.

He wants to question the assumption that ‘value’ is confined to economics, arguing that it should be something the public sphere should weigh in on.

Final Thoughts

I remember my first essay in university was a reflection on Winston Churchill’s famous quote “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.”

I feel the same way about meritocracy. Sandel exposes the issues with it as an ideal and as it plays out in the real world. However, it is not clear what would be a better organizing system for society.

In the final analysis, whether you agree with the book’s critiques, it provides a good starting point for us to think more critically about the dignity of work. Work is not only a means for us to earn a living, but something that provides us with self-esteem, a sense of worth and social recognition.

In the age of the pandemic, perhaps we all can start appreciating how valuable those ‘essential workers’ really are.

Work, at its best, is a socially integrating activity, an arena of recognition, a way of honoring our obligation to contribute to the common good
Michael J. Sandel, The Tyranny of Merit

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Beneath the Iceberg: A Look at Mental Models

Each of us views the world through our own unique pair of glasses. Our experience is shaped by what we pay attention to during our moment-to-moment existence. It is informed by our social conditioning, beliefs, values and the type of information that we actively seek out.

We don’t have access to the world ‘in and of itself.’ Rather, we view reality from our own subjective filters or mental models which help us interpret the vast amount of data available to us.

As Robert M. Pirsig explains in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,

From all this awareness we must select, and what we select and call consciousness is never the same as the awareness because the process of selection mutates it. We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.

Language, psychology, statistics and economics are all examples of mental models we have developed to help us simplify and understand the world around us. While there is a strong relationship between the models we develop and the outside world, these mental maps are always imperfect to some extent. Consequently, we are thrown off-guard or are surprised, when events don’t neatly fit into our abstractions of how we think things ought to be. Due to the dynamic nature of the world, we are required to constantly draw new maps and update old assumptions to align with the latest findings and discoveries.

Like a pane of glass framing and subtly distorting our vision, mental models determine what we see
Peter Senge

In this article, I want to explore the importance of going beneath the surface or beyond what is directly observable to understand what drives behavior on an individual and societal level.

Events don’t occur in a vacuum but are the byproduct of the values, beliefs and mental models which underpin a particular individual or system.

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Iceberg Model

The iceberg model is a good analogy to encourage us to look at situations more broadly, and assess system foundations. Namely, what we see on the surface is often limited and illusive. Most of the iceberg’s structure is hidden underwater. Similarly, while we are inundated with surface level issues and daily affairs in the news or media, we are less often exposed to the patterns of behavior or patterns of thought influencing these trends.

While the model has different variations depending on the source, for our purposes we will look at four layers of analysis.

Events: Events are what is visible to us (i.e. elections, stock market fluctuations, natural disasters). Exclusively focusing on this level of analysis can often leave us surprised and scratching our heads. Although they are the most noticeable, they often lack and predictive or explanatory power.
Patterns of Behavior: Commonalities and trends between a series of events. Patterns of behavior look at long-term trends that occur within a system over time.
System Structures: At a deeper level of analysis, we get to system structures which influence the long-term trends identified. System structures can include rules, norms, or institutions which are comprised of cause-and-effect relationships and feedback loops. Systems structures can help us better understand how the different parts of the system are connected through casual relationships (i.e. how adjusting system inputs will affect outputs).
Mental Models: Mental models serve as the foundation of the iceberg. They are the values and belief systems which influence our thoughts and actions.

The Addiction Archetype

The iceberg model is a good tool which enables us to step back from our immediate circumstances, think critically and identify the root causes of our problems.

A potent example which characterizes many of our systemic issues we face in modern society is our addiction to short-term thinking and solutions. These may buy us time or give us immediate pleasure but ultimately lead us in traps making it more and more difficult to escape. Driven by instant gratification and short-termism, addiction takes many forms on both an individual and societal level.

Let us look at some more concrete examples:

A financial system built on cheap credit and speculation is increasingly volatile, less resilient and more susceptible to boom and bust cycles (events\patterns of behavior). Beneath the surface, we see institutions (system structures) which prioritize short-term profits over sustainability and human wellbeing (mental models).
An individual develops an addiction to drugs (events\patterns of behavior) as a way to escape and avoid deeply rooted emotional issues and insecurities (mental models). Rather than address their deep-seated trauma, they turn to short term pleasure to alleviate the pain (system structures).
A wishful consumer is knee deep in debt (event\patterns of behavior) as they play status games to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ through unaffordable luxury purchases (system structures). At a deeper level, this desire to spend is driven by the façade that consumer goods or status can bring us respect, meaning and genuine friendship (mental models).

Beneath the Surface

In every situation there is always something beyond what we can visibly see on the surface. Short-term shallow level solutions are like running in quick sand. They fail to address the root causes and keep us hooked in feedback loops which make it increasingly difficult to alter our course of action. Pulling out the roots and going deeper to the level of system structures and mental models provides more leverage for meaningful systemic change.

Lastly, in a complex, messy and often unpredictable world having the ability and foresight to constantly update your mental models will make you more adaptable and resilient. Honest, open and genuine conversations with others allows us to identify and attend to any potential blind spots in our thinking. Two minds are often better than one. Donella H. Meadows reminds to always seek feedback and constantly put our mental models out in the open for exposure and constructive criticism,

Everything you know, and everything everyone knows, is only a model. Get your model out there where it can be shot at. Invite others to challenge your assumptions and add their own ………. Mental flexibility–the willingness to redraw boundaries, to notice that a system has shifted into a new mode, to see how to redesign structure — is a necessity when you live in a world of flexible systems.
Thinking in Systems: A Primer

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The Power of Systems Thinking: Beyond the Reductionist Mindset

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It is unfortunate that it often takes a crisis for us to become acutely aware of how interconnected the world really is. We see how everything is immersed in a web of interlinked systems ranging from the economy, natural environment, health systems to our own personal wellbeing. Each input is a unique part of the puzzle, and is connected to the system at large through a series of information flows and interdependent feedback loops.

Systems are everywhere. We see them in the complexities in our own bodies to the harmony that exists in natural ecosystems. Every unique organism has its role to play in the sustainability and continuation of our vast and diverse natural habitats. The success of a well-functioning system is dependent on how well its parts are organized to achieve a common goal.

In nature we never see anything isolated , but everything in connection with something else, which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

Despite this, as a culture we have a tendency to be fixated on reductionist and mechanistic systems of thought. Take for instance how we structure our education systems. Knowledge is sliced into specific disciplines which an individual gain expertise in through their specialization.

However, the world is often messy, dynamic and in constant flux. Information can not fit into neat discrete boxes like we would like to imagine. Rather than focusing on the linkages and dependencies between the disciplines, educational institutions create specialists who don’t have the incentives to look beyond their narrow subject matter expertise.

The boundaries that we implement are of course important to organize society. They help us ensure that our institutions can work effectively and efficiently. Nonetheless, nothing exists in a vacuum and the borders we impose on reality aren’t as clear cut as they may seem on the surface.

As systems thinker Donella H. Meadows mentions in her book Thinking in Systems: A Primer,

There is no determinable boundary between the sea and the land, between sociology and anthropology, between an automobile’s exhaust and your nose. There are only boundaries of word, thought, perception and social agreement – artificial, mental-model boundaries.

While these artificial containers provide us with stability and flexibility, a fixation on these mental constructs can blind us, making us naïve to the broader context and interdependencies of the situation. As the world continues to increase in complexity, our social systems and institutions need to be both adaptable and flexible to rapid change.

Thinking in systems forces us to examine things more methodically, and encourages us to avoid polarized ‘us against them ‘or ‘winner take all’ types of reasoning. We can see that problems don’t exist in isolation, and that quick fixes only lead to system instability or collapse in the future. Moreover, this incentivizes us to think more deeply about issues to address root causes instead of symptoms.

Systems thinking compels us to ask the questions, why is it that the same type of economic, social or political crises happen again and again throughout history? What underlying behaviors and thinking is responsible for this type of ignorance?

Our wellbeing is intrinsically linked not only to others but to the sustainability of the natural environment. Under this logic, we can see that relationships are the fundamental aspect of all life on earth. Everything which exists in this world is deeply integrated into a set of systems.

As social beings, we humans derive our identity through our interactions with families, friends, social groups, society at large and the natural environment. If we really appreciate and understand this concept, the narcissism and rampant individualism that drives our culture starts to fade. Egotism begins to seem illogical and contradictory as the ‘self’ is influenced and shaped by the quality of our connections with others.

Addressing the ideology of ‘short-termism’, greed and instant gratification which pervade our society and institutions is no easy feat. It all begins however with a shift in our thinking, an evolution of our values to understand how our lifestyles and choices are shaping the welfare others, as well as our future ancestors.

In a way we are the bridge between the past and the future. Our success is not entirely ours to boast. Each generation ‘stands on the shoulders of giants.’ As David Mitchell beautifully writes in his book Cloud Atlas,

Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.

To paraphrase Alan Watts, we are all just one wave in the midst of a boundless ocean.

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