The Myth of Meritocracy

 

 

I should like this but I don't.

 

This picture has been going viral across social media lately.

 

It only tells half the story. 

 

Here's how I look at it:

 

I work like it all depends on me, but I vote like it all depends on we. We need to understand both.

 

Far too many Americans have bought into the myth of meritocracy, which suggests that your individual hard work and enterprise are the ONLY variables in your success. That's simply wrong at face value. No, it is not healthy to get stuck in a blame or victim mode, either, but it's also neither healthy nor accurate to think you are an island. Both extremes can be a trap and both have some truth, depending on how they are lived out and understood.

 

What this sign fails to realize it that it took the WHOLE COMMUNITY to build the school where this sign is on display. Millions of your fellow Americans put their time, talent and treasure on the line to make sure you got this education--taxpayers, teachers, administrators, janitors, nurses, construction workers, coaches, etc. They make sure you have a hospital when you are sick, roads to travel to school on, and a safe environment through police, fire and military presence.

 

NO, you did NOT get there on your own. Systemic injustice and oppression are real. Some groups and individuals have it harder than others--FACT. Naming that and calling society into accountability is not "playing the victim." It's just denial and gaslighting to deny that these factors do impact real lives significantly.

 

But YES, YOU do have a lot of agency in your life--probably more than you realize. No, you are not a helpless victim of peer pressure or any other circumstances in your life. But all those circumstances DO have an impact and it would be wrong to ignore it.

 

It takes a wise and mature person to sift through all this.

 

Open Borders: A Necessary Stage in Human Evolution

I get involved in a lot of debates online about immigration. Usually people try to retort with a sweeping rhetorical fallacy:  "So are you saying you just want open borders??"  No, I am advocating for ethical, humane, merciful, compassionate treatment of all who come to the border and across it, regardless of their level of documentation. That is not too much to ask. I give the official church answer, which is that most Christian denominations affirm the right of a people to establish space for themselves and to have a system for entry and exit for the purposes of safety and order--but the right to have a border is NEVER greater than the right to life, and people have a right to cross a border--papers or no papers--if their conscience demands it.

THAT BEING SAID, if you want to know my personal opinion, I am more in line with this article. It's time to move away from the concept of "nation" and that includes national borders. Giving the sweeping movements of refugees all over the world, and the coming catastrophes in terms of climate refugees,, borders are just going to be an inconvenience at best and a death trap at worst.

In all actuality, I'm not contradicting the official church position. We don't have to eradicate all borders right now today, but they can be fairly open and fluid. We have a great deal of choice in how we establish, maintain and enforce those borders.

For example, I can go from Ohio to Pennsylvania without much hassle. People long ago made the choice to make it so.  We can make those choices again today in regards to other borders. It's that simple. Other borders can simply be a rubber stamp just keeping track of the comings and going of people but they do not function as a harsh, militant operation. Borders can be anything from a literal line in the sand to the Berlin Wall and everything in between. People who want to justify the concept of borders need to remember there is a huge variety in how borders are maintained in the world.

Some folks may find that to be a radical idea, but honestly it's important to look at the whole historical span here. Nations have only existed in human history for a few hundred years. Our species began as nomadic bands of families and neighbors in hunter/gatherer societies. We spent probably over 100,000-300,000 years like this, depending on when you date the origin of our species (and longer if you include early forms of humans). Most eventually settled into small villages, especially as farming and animal herding became more of the norm 10,000 years ago.  Those villages turned into cities.  Those cities morphed into city-states.  Those states banded together to form nations... that's where we are now... and those nations sometimes band together to form regional alliances.  NATO, the UN, and the European Union are examples of this evolution. All of these evolutions have come with tradeoffs and growing pains. Many nations today look unified on the map but they are anything but unified on the inside.  Old rivalries and turf wars still plague many European nations, for example.  But the important thing is that this trajectory is inevitable. The EU is probably the most evolved such alliance to date but more will come.

So we should look ahead and see the writing on the wall.  This is the direction human society is going.  We can get ahead of the curve and plan for it, especially when human and ecological needs require it.