September 9, 2016
Meritocracy: Is Success A Result Of Hard Work Or Luck?
It is an accident of birth that you live in this time. — We are indoctrinated from a young age into the belief system of meritocracy. While many are not familiar with the word, we are all familiar with the notion — If you work hard and play by the rules, you too can achieve the American Dream. We love lines like this, because as Americans we are more likely to believe success is achieved by intelligence, skill, and hard work, and we are less inclined to accept success is the result of race, family, or wealth. Advantageously we corroborate our meritocratic beliefs each time a person of success attributes their prosperity to hard work. And why not? After all, this belief system traces its roots to the American revolution, a rejection of the nobility and social order that saw peasants merely as vessels of labor and taxation.