Book Club: The Tyranny of Merit

“You can make it if you try". Does meritocracy liberate us from class and caste based societal inequalities? Or is it a lie?

Join us at our next Book Club meeting in July for a stimulating discussion with like-minded individuals on The Tyranny of Merit.

In his book The Tyranny of Merit: what's Become of the Common Good? Michael J Sandel argues that 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.

He argues that to overcome the polarised 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.

Sandel is one of the most important and influential philosophers living today. He teaches political philosophy at Harvard University. His books What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, and Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? were international best sellers.

If you don’t have time to read the book, you could listen to this recording by the Fairness Foundation where Sandel discusses the book: Fairness Foundation - The Tyranny of Merit

You can read more about this book at Goodreads: The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? by Michael J Sandel

We have a group on Goodreads from which you can see all the books we're discussing and make comments and recommendations to other members of the group. Goodreads: Reading Humanists group.