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Here's a question we should all be asking:

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What went wrong?

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Not just with the pandemic

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but with our civic life.

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What brought us to this polarized,[br]rancorous political moment?

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In recent decades,

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the divide between winners and losers[br]has been deepening,

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poisoning our politics,

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setting us apart.

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This divide is partly about inequality.

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But it's also about the attitudes[br]toward winning and losing

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that have come with it.

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Those who landed on top

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came to believe that their success[br]was their own doing,

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a measure of their merit,

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and that those who lost out[br]had no one to blame but themselves.

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This way of thinking about success

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arises from a seemingly[br]attractive principle.

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If everyone has an equal chance,

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the winners deserve their winnings.

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This is the heart[br]of the meritocratic ideal.

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In practice, of course, we fall far short.

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Not everybody has an equal chance to rise.

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Children born to poor families[br]tend to stay poor when they grow up.

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Affluent parents are able to pass[br]their advantages onto their kids.

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At Ivy League universities, for example,

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there are more students[br]from the top one percent

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than from the entire bottom half[br]of the country combined.

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But the problem isn't only[br]that we fail to live up

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to the meritocratic[br]principles we proclaim.

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The ideal itself is flawed.

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It has a dark side.

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Meritocracy is corrosive[br]of the common good.

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It leads to hubris among the winners

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and humiliation among those who lose out.

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It encourages the successful[br]to inhale too deeply of their success,

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to forget the luck and good fortune[br]that helped them on their way.

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And it leads them to look down[br]on those less fortunate,

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less credentialed than themselves.

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This matters for politics.

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One of the most potent sources[br]of the populous backlash

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is the sense among many working people[br]that elites look down on them.

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It's a legitimate complaint.

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Even as globalization[br]brought deepening inequality

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and stagnant wages,

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its proponents offered workers[br]some bracing advice.

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"If you want to compete and win[br]in the global economy,

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go to college."

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"What you earn depends on what you learn."

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"You can make it if you try."

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These elites miss the insult[br]implicit in this advice.

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If you don't go to college,

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if you don't flourish in the new economy,

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your failure is your fault.

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That's the implication.

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It's no wonder many working people[br]turned against meritocratic elites.

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So what should we do?

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We need to rethink three aspects[br]of our civic life.

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The role of college,

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the dignity of work

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and the meaning of success.

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We should begin by rethinking[br]the role of universities

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as arbiters of opportunity.

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For those of us who spend our days[br]in the company of the credentialed,

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it's easy to forget a simple fact:

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Most people don't have[br]a four-year college degree.

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In fact, nearly two-thirds[br]of Americans don't.

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So it is folly to create an economy

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that makes a university diploma[br]a necessary condition

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of dignified work and a decent life.

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Encouraging people to go[br]to college is a good thing.

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Broadening access[br]for those who can't afford it

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is even better.

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But this is not a solution to inequality.

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We should focus less on arming people[br]for meritocratic combat,

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and focus more on making life better

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for people who lack a diploma

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but who make essential[br]contributions to our society.

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We should renew the dignity of work

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and place it at the center[br]of our politics.

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We should remember that work[br]is not only about making a living,

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it's also about contributing[br]to the common good

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and winning recognition for doing so.

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Robert F. Kennedy put it well[br]half a century ago.

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Fellowship, community, shared patriotism.

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These essential values do not come

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from just buying and consuming[br]goods together.

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They come from dignified employment,

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at decent pay.

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The kind of employment[br]that enables us to say,

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"I helped to build this country.

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I am a participant[br]in its great public ventures."

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This civic sentiment

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is largely missing[br]from our public life today.

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We often assume that the money people make

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is the measure of their contribution[br]to the common good.

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But this is a mistake.

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Martin Luther King Jr. explained why.

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Reflecting on a strike[br]by sanitation workers

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in Memphis, Tennessee,

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shortly before he was assassinated,

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King said,

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"The person who picks up our garbage[br]is, in the final analysis,

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as significant as the physician,

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for if he doesn't do his job,

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diseases are rampant.

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All labor has dignity."

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Today's pandemic makes this clear.

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It reveals how deeply we rely

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on workers we often overlook.

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Delivery workers,

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maintenance workers,

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grocery store clerks,

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warehouse workers,

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truckers,

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nurse assistants,

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childcare workers,

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home health care providers.

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These are not the best-paid[br]or most honored workers.

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But now, we see them as essential workers.

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This is a moment for a public debate

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about how to bring their pay[br]and recognition

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into better alignment[br]with the importance of their work.

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It is also time for a moral,[br]even spiritual, turning,

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questioning our meritocratic hubris.

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Do I morally deserve the talents[br]that enable me to flourish?

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Is it my doing

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that I live in a society[br]that prizes the talents

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I happen to have?

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Or is that my good luck?

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Insisting that my success is my due

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makes it hard to see myself[br]in other people's shoes.

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Appreciating the role of luck in life

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can prompt a certain humility.

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There but for the accident of birth,[br]or the grace of God,

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or the mystery of fate,

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go I.

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This spirit of humility

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is the civic virtue we need now.

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It's the beginning of a way back

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from the harsh ethic of success[br]that drives us apart.

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It points us beyond the tyranny of merit

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to a less rancorous,[br]more generous public life.