3. How does the modern, high-pressure meritocracy impact the search for human meaning? How does the pressure to “make something of yourself” damage your ability to cultivate the eulogy virtues?
As a society, we’ve bought into the idea of a meritocracy: that nowadays in America we rise according to what we’ve earned, what we’ve merited. It’s a seductive idea.
I’ll talk about my own situation for a moment. I have a good life. A comfortable life. I have a good job with good benefits. My husband and I live in a safe, middle-class neighborhood with a dwindling mortgage. I have a retirement nest egg commensurate with solid planning from my mid-20s. And I have enough disposable income to finance vacations, experiences, and “stuff” with just a little commonsense planning.
I’ve worked hard, yes. I could bore you with the details of my efforts, but I won’t. Because if I’m not careful, the doctrine of meritocracy can all too easily transform into a sense of entitlement. I work hard, yes, but I was trained to work hard: from my earliest years in a fancy Montessori through an elite high school and into a Big Ten university. And once in those schools, I was further favored by a system designed to look favorably on middle-class white children with good manners. I remember once my mother came home from parent-teacher conferences in my Virginian elementary school. I had failed a class. The teacher had decided to just let it slide with a “D” and a warning and pass me on without any further consequences. We were in learning tiers in that school based in large part on race and class. I was not dropped to the middle tier.
And I had more than institutional support going for me. I was raised by academicians in a wider family of professionals. I grew up listening to Thanksgiving dinner table conversation where the adults traded advice about how to give job recommendations for employees who weren’t very good (you talk about how they throw great company picnics, have a charming family, and bring in bagels for the break room. You studiously avoid discussing their work product. If the interviewer is smart, they’ll catch on. If they’re not, that will be their problem, and in any case you won’t be sued). I was groomed to be a good employee from my earliest years. It wasn’t inevitable, and yes, it takes effort, but it’s just not accurate to say that my worldly treasures are based on merit. I was groomed to inherit them.
So let me come back around to my original question: how does a meritocracy impact the search for human meaning? Because you can come to confuse privilege with merit, both in yourself and in others. I try to be careful in making theological pronouncements, but one thing I’m pretty certain of is that God does not love me more because of the balance of my savings account. I do believe that God judges me based on what I do with my wealth, and how I invest my talents in my relationships and my community. But on my worldly success? No.
I belive that the meritocracy is actually a complicated set of circumstances, many of which are born out of luck, and some of which are gifts through the grace of God. We should be careful to invest our success into giving back and be very, very careful of laying claim to what we’ve been trained to think of as earned.
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