David Brooks: How Elites Rigged The Society
In a shocking paradox, social critic David Brooks argues that America’s educated elite, despite their good intentions, are largely responsible for creating the very system that birthed figures like Donald Trump. According to Brooks, the elites built a society so broken and isolating that it sparked a populist rage which is now tearing the country apart. But how did these well-intentioned individuals get it so catastrophically wrong? The Myth of Meritocracy We’ve all heard it before: the ultimate American dream is that if you work hard, you'll succeed. The smartest individuals rise to the top, benefiting everyone. This is what we call a meritocracy. But what if this isn't true? What if the people at the top wrote the rules of the game to ensure they would always win? David Brooks contends that the modern meritocracy is actually a resentment-generating machine. The system, he argues, reduces human worth to academic success—specifically, school smarts. But school smarts and li...
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