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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,
rancorous political moment?
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In recent decades,
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the divide between winners and losers
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
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
was their own doing,
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a measure of their merit,
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and that those who lost out
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
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
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
tend to stay poor when they grow up.
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Affluent parents are able to pass
their advantages onto their kids.
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At Ivy League universities, for example,
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there are more students
from the top one percent
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than from the entire bottom half
of the country combined.
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But the problem isn't only
that we fail to live up
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to the meritocratic
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
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
to inhale too deeply of their success,
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to forget the luck and good fortune
that helped them on their way.
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And it leads them to look down
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
of the populous backlash
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is the sense among many working people
that elites look down on them.
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It's a legitimate complaint.
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Even as globalization
brought deepening inequality
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and stagnant wages,
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its proponents offered workers
some bracing advice.
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"If you want to compete and win
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
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
turned against meritocratic elites.
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So what should we do?
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We need to rethink three aspects
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
the role of universities
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as arbiters of opportunity.
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For those of us who spend our days
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
a four-year college degree.
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In fact, nearly two-thirds
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
a necessary condition
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of dignified work and a decent life.
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Encouraging people to go
to college is a good thing.
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Broadening access
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
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
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
of our politics.
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We should remember that work
is not only about making a living,
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it's also about contributing
to the common good
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and winning recognition for doing so.
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Robert F. Kennedy put it well
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
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
that enables us to say,
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"I helped to build this country.
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I am a participant
in its great public ventures."
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This civic sentiment
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is largely missing
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
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
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
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
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
and recognition
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into better alignment
with the importance of their work.
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It is also time for a moral,
even spiritual turning,
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questioning our meritocratic hubris.
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Do I morally deserve the talents
that enable me to flourish?
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Is it my doing
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that I live in a society
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
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
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
that drives us apart.
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It points us beyond the tyranny of merit
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to a less rancorous,
more generous public life.