I toyed with Gordon Brown’s talk on communications creating a global conscience but….. this is more time out.
Actually, I’ll feel a little guilty if I keep copying and pasting in these links. De Botton is spot on, the meritocratic society has at its core an individualistic notion. That has as he points out, an obvious flaw, losers really are losers. Is it fair? Yes and no, certainly concrete barriers are less evident that before, but the problem with a meritocracy is that its a bit simplistic and all to perfect, unlike reality, so perhaps we should be a little less judgemental and focus a little more on public good… *cough* Denmark *cough*, ahem.
July 29th, 2009 at 22:49
Oh at last I can comment! Very interesting talk by DeBotton.
Chris you mention that the meritocratic soceity is to some extent individualistic but this is precisely due to liberalism- the idea that everyone has the right to follow their own personal notions of the good life- this applies both to social and economic liberalism. You argue that there should be a greater concept of the public good- I couldn’t agree more and this is precisely what the Red Tory Phillip Blond and to an extent Cameron is talking about when they talk about reviving society and the community- that is to say we should all work toghether so that we can flourish both together and as individuals- the Catholic Church’s concept of the common good also sides with this argument (see the Pope’s latest enclyclical Caritas in Veritate). It is also what Edmund Burke argued for when he talked about the ‘little platoons’ of civil society- that is family, church and charities all working in concert to improve society. However I disagree with your example of the social democratic country of Denmark as the country that is a good display of this public good. Greater state intervention in the economy is not the answer to alleviate people’s poverty or sense of being losers- indeed such intervention merely supports capitalism and therefore makes people powerless and beholden economically to the state (see Hillaire Belloc’s The Servile State for this argument). What the more thoughtful people on the left such as Professor Milbank with his Christian Socialism or blue socialism (Conservative Socialism) and to a some extent Jon Cruddas Labour MP and those on the right (aka Phillip Blond) argue for is a non statist economy (see the Christian Socialist Karl Polyani) where as many people as possible can own the means to production- less state and more society- eg families,church voluntary bodies, small local business all working in toghether for the common good. Ironically in Britain today it is the left today who have abandoned any concept of the public good- choosing the individualistic social and economic liberalism instead while it is the right who are talking about the community and society. We live in interesting times….
August 9th, 2009 at 21:31
Ok, I say let the catholic church put its money where its mouth is and distribute its shares equally among its members