Washington Monthly - September/October 2020 - 118

concentrate as it does with the merit of
those cities.
Most progressives (especially those
conscious of race) know this. But at the
same time, they are willing to accept
meritocratic trappings-like college
degrees-as accurate predictors of worth,
enabling the rise of snobbery among the
progressive professional class. It allows
them to justify self-dealing policies that
benefit themselves. It's therefore no surprise that right-wing populism is on
the rise.

T

he term meritocracy, almost universally praised today, was coined in the
1950s by the British sociologist Michael
Young to describe a dystopia. In contrast

sexism but are unapologetic about their who are deeply religious). He rarenegative attitudes toward the less ed- ly spoke of opportunity and upward
ucated." A 2018 study by five psycholo- mobility. A candidate "keenly alive to
gists, for example, concluded that well- the politics of humiliation," Sandel
educated elites are no less biased than says, Trump feigned respect for workthose with less education; "it is rather ing-class people. "l love the poorly eduthat [their] targets of prejudice are dif- cated," Trump famously said after one
ferent." Media scholars have noted that primary victory. The gambit worked.
blue-collar fathers such as Homer Simp- Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly won
son are cast as "buffoons."
college-educated voters, but Trump
As a result, embracing meritocracy too won voters without a college degree-
tightly can be politically disastrous. In a larger share of the electorate-by sev2016, some working-class people were en percentage points.
left with "the galling sense that those
Liberals, of course, tend to have polwho stood astride the hierarchy of merit icies that are far more helpful to those
looked down with disdain on those they without college educations than do
considered less accomplished than them- conservatives. But Democratic governselves." The disdain was made explicit in ments stacked with well-educated elites
2016 when Hillary Clin- have little real understanding of workton, speaking at fund- ing-class struggles, and, just like Reraisers in the Hamptons publicans, they can cause problems for
and Martha's Vineyard, the poor. For example, the mostly Ivy
labeled millions of work- League status of Obama's cabinet helped
ing-class Americans as inform "a Wall Street-friendly response
"deplorables."
to the financial crisis," Sandel writes,
Sometimes, the merit- one that failed to comprehend "seething
ocratic ethos can be well public anger." Instead, the too-big-tomeaning but neverthe- jail philosophy seemed to exonerate wellless counterproductive. educated Wall Street bankers who enAt a 2017 conference I gaged in selfish behavior that did
attended on civics edu- grave damage to the country. Timothy
cation, Supreme Court Geithner and Rahm Emanuel were hapJustice Sonia Sotomay- pier to bail out financial executives-
or took a series of ques- who shared their pedigrees (and in some
tions from high school cases their former jobs)-than they
st udents, and before were to rescue average Americans. In
they each spoke, asked whether they other words, a belief that wealth and edintended to go to college. Each said yes, ucation equal merit helped lead to stunand she congratulated them all. In at- ning inequality.
tendance was Clifford Janey, the forWealth and education obviously do not
mer superintendent of public schools in "naturally" equal merit. But even if we were
Washington, D.C., who gently suggest- able to eliminate the immense barriers of
ed to her during the Q&A that students poverty, race, and gender-so that we had
who did not plan to go to college also a society in which people could indeed rise
had a lot to offer and were deserving of as far as their talents would take them-
support. As Sandel notes, "Insisting that meritocracy would remain problematic bea college degree is the primary route to cause it would still sometimes reward the
a respectable job" results in "prejudice merely lucky. The possession of raw talents
that undermines the dignity of work is unearned. There is a large element of forand demeans those who have not been tune in being born into a society at a time
to college."
when your particular talents are valued. If
Trump brilliantly exploited the LeBron James were a superb arm wrestler,
idea that well-educated progressives rather than a phenomenal basketball playlooked down on those with less educa- er, he would not be making tens of miltion (and, sometimes relatedly, those lions of dollars, Sandel observes.

The term meritocracy was
coined in the 1950s by a British
sociologist to describe a dystopia.
In contrast to an aristocracy,
where people on top know they
are just lucky, in a meritocracy,
winners feel enormous pride
in their accomplishments and
the majority feel humiliated.
to an aristocracy, where people on top
know they are just lucky and people on
the bottom know they are merely unfortunate, in a meritocracy a small minority of winners feel enormous pride in
their accomplishments and the majority feel humiliated by their low position.
Young's book predicted a revolt against
meritocratic elites in 2034. "In 2016, as
Britain voted for Brexit and America
for Trump, that revolt arrived eighteen
years ahead of schedule," Sandel writes.
It's easy to see why. While meritocracy very appropriately denounces racism and sexism, it has given rise to what
Sandel calls "the last acceptable prejudice," a disdain for the less educated. Social scientists have found that highly educated elites "may denounce racism and
118  September/October 2020



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