The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?: What’s Become of the Common Good?

In his book, prof. Sandel gives an entirely new turn to the debate on 'meritocracy'. Being a strict believer in fair competition and merit, it was hard for me to digest that meritocracy may have an ugly side as well. Prof. Sandel argues one's achievements are attributed to the actions of others, not entirely his or her own doing. In his groundbreaking work, he further draws the customary practice of labelling the 'winners' and 'losers'.

Tyranny & the arrogance merit can generate needs to be checked…! Political leaders and policy makers for nation building need to make all their efforts in reducing inequalities and motivate people to work for the common good.

I like how the effects of meritocracy are well written. Not so much the solutions and their defence as they all will have their own major problems so there will be another book about solving them.

Shown in the images are the residual glue on the outside of the binding which isn’t reflection of and original print. The front cover has the name of the author split into half (Allan lane is printed Allan la). The rear cover has spelling errors (for eg consequences, attitudes to name a few) clearly indicating a pdf converted into a first copy print. Also the pages inside have prints which are either upward or downward.

I liked the content and format of the book. To understand, contextualise and share with younger lot.

An excellent read that serves as a serious eye-opener for those of us who have ridden the merit band wagon to its ultimate conclusion.

However would have been easier for me ( just a college graduate) to navigate smoothly, if it had less of back and forth between the various levels of tyranny. However all said and done, though it took me awhile to to traverse from cover to cover; it was worth it.👍👍👍

Fake book with slanting and bleeding text, typographical errors, poor binding and paper quality. Have returned it, but, refund is yet to be recieved. The content of the book cannot be commented upon here, since I did not expend effort on reading a fake copy! I do not recommend the Seller, though.

Sandel takes aim st the graduate cosmopolitan class and gives them both barrels. He describes the meritocratic system as valorising a class who believe their personal talent justifies high pay and status whilst humiliating those with less talent as undeserving and dumb. This hubris and humiliation led to populism and the social divisions exemplified by Trump, Brexit, the yellow jackets etc. Its research and reasoning is impeccable. It will make for important and uncomfortable reading for many people who believe they occupy their privileged position by merit. Sandel is scathing in his elimination of this conceit. I bought this together with Head, Hand and Heart by David Goodhart that covers much of the same ground by describing how society has come to undervalue work performed by hand or compassion. Both books rank in my Top Ten. In an age where we have made going to university a form of apartheid they should be read by every academic and policy maker. Without reform the populist / protest divide will continue to grow. We must thank Sandel, an elite liberal, for being so honest about the system he swims in.

Repetitious, boring 50% consists of quotes and Sandel’s interpretations.Essentially a single idea book: Meritocracy is not just, it creates winners and losers and the winners are nasty to the losers and the losers elect Donald Trump.Being written by Sandel there is a bit more, but there are no human solutions.The main problem with the book is that it is not tackling the main problems with late 20 century technological society, which will be exacerbated in the 21st century.Automation has created 4 times the job loses of outsourcing and having devastated the blue collar is set to work on clerical and higher with the onslaught of AI.There are very few jobs-for-life, people need to constantly re-train and adapt, it’s not a question of the “credentials” (which Sandel blames for inequality), it is a question of ABILITY and there is an increasingly large population of people who, even if given equal opportunity, will be unable to do.China is solving the problem by using half its population as a police force and is not concerned with equality and “the good life”, “value” and “merit” in the social meanings Sandel uses, they are a brute force which has a single purpose – the triumph of the party. The West are naïve fools to think they can be nice and (never mind win) not lose.We do need solutions but Sandel is not helping by this book.

Michael Sandel is an intelligent thinker. This book challenges us in the Western world to challenge what we value and how society works. It's a legitimate challenge and one that Sandel argues compellingly.I like books where I don't always 100% agree with the author, because it helps me to question what I think and to consider whether I should change my own stance. Otherwise we live in echo chambers sucking up everything that validates our lifestyle, politics, values and actions.I don't always entirely agree with Sandel's portrayal of what's wrong with society - it comes across as overly polarised at times, but his overall argument is strong and I do agree with it: meritocracy is corrosive of the common good. The rich get richer and the poor are still with us. Maybe you think that's fine if you subscribe to a hedonistic or rational egotistic philosophy, but I'd hope that most of think we can do better as the human race, to be more humble, more considerate, more inclusive.He highlights three aspects of Western societies that we should rethink: (1) the role of higher education; (2) the dignity of work; and (3) the meaning of success.Sandel uses the works of others to good effect. Much of what he writes has been said before in a way, but this book collates this thinking together helpfully to present a contextually strong argument in light of the global coronavirus pandemic.Sandel draws us convincingly towards its titular implication: that society needs to escape the tyranny of merit.A stimulating book for those who are willing to hold up a mirror to life in the fast lane of the Western world.

There are two main ways of selection – by merit and by the luck of the draw. They are two divergent methods and we need them both for different situations. A plane is going down and there’s only one parachute. It is invidious in this situation to say the parachute ought to be given to the most deserving. Drawing straws seems manifestly fairer. Where we have prize for the best tennis player in the tournament, drawing straws is absurd. Sandel’s book is about selection by merit. A nice sounding, welcome word that hides a multitude of sin. The moment we begin to think of merit as getting what we deserve, for all the talent inherent in us and the effort we put in, we begin to see ourselves as winners and others as losers. We begin to think in the language of what we deserve. We begin to see ourselves as experts and the natural inheritors of just rewards. In this book, Sandel examines the merits of merit, and the reasons why meritocracy has become a disgusting word to ‘populists’. This is a deep and meticulous examination of merit as just desert, a notion that requires a broad understanding of what it is and how it works. It is not a straightforward notion. For example, Fredrich Hayek thinks that merit stands in the way of redistribution of wealth, whereas John Rawls believes that merit stands in the way of objections to redistribution. For Hayek, insistence on merit may deny redistribution on other grounds of desert and necessity. Rawlsian principles to not seek to reward merit or virtue. “If meritocracy is the problem’, Sandel asks, ‘what is the solution?’ It does not mean that we hire people on nepotism, but rethinking the way we conceive of success. It means ‘challenging inequalities of wealth and esteem that are defended in the name of merit but foster resentment, poison our politics, and drive us apart.’ The focus, Sandel says, should be on the two central domains of our lives – work and education. When we have time to reflect on the true nature of meritocracy, we will have to ask ourselves whether we see health and wealth as matters we deserve by our effort conceding ‘nothing to luck and grace – that everything is a reward or punishment for the choices we make’. This notion also plasters over the fallacious belief that being good and being great are one and the same. Sandel traces the roots of meritocracy and reminds us not to draw the wrong lessons from those who achieve through greatness. The young black boy who went on to break Babe Ruth’s home run record should not, Sandel warns, drive us to love meritocracy but to ‘despise a system of racial injustice that can only be escaped by hitting home runs’.

Sandell's main thesis appears to be that assigning social rank in line with 'merit' leads to immobility and unfairness. He demonstrates that well though repetitively. He tries but fails to come up with a credible solution. It seems brave for a political philosopher , however distinguished, to try to deal with such a many faceted deep rooted subject on his own.I did, however, appreciate some of the philosophical analysis, including his comments on the Book of Job. I award the latter six stars!