The Tyranny of Merit : What’s Become of the Common Good?

　　我們生活在不是贏者就是輸家的時代，機會被雙手奉上，獻給早已擁有一切的富人。社會階級僵化和不平等，讓人們深信的「只要努力，人人都能成功」成為天大謊言，由之引發的憤怒與挫折感撲天蓋地而來，激起民粹主義的示威與社會分化，更進一步導致政府與人民間的隔閡加劇，讓我們所面臨的挑戰更為嚴峻。

　　桑德爾在本書中，對「功績主義」(meritocracy)提出強而有力的抨擊。這一概念的核心信念，原是在於人能夠藉由辛勤工作來掌控自己命運的「自由」，以及藉此獲取財富、權力與聲望的「正當性」。如任何人能得到利益，必然是因為他擁有才能、理應得到那些資源，在此信念下，成功無疑是種美德。然而，桑德爾指出，實際上要達到功成名就的地位，背後還包含家族地位、受教育程度、運氣等等許多超出人為掌控的因素。如今，在功績主義盛行的當代社會，事業有成的人養成傲慢的氣息，對於趨於劣勢的人們，也絲毫不存憐憫之心，甚至刻薄以待，這樣的風氣對社會有什麼影響，自然不言而喻。而對於奠基於此一信念，無論左右派政治人物都提倡的文憑主義──鼓勵勞工取得文憑以改善生活，桑德爾更提出譴責，認為這削弱了那些欠缺資格證照的人們的社會認可與工作尊嚴，使得許多勞工深受社會偏見折磨。

　　桑德爾指出，如果要克服我們正面臨的社會分化等危機，就必須重新思考我們對「成功」和「失敗」的定義，當人們越認為自己的成功都是來自於個人的努力，就越難了解到謙遜和心懷感激的重要，也更難主動去關注公眾利益。桑德爾針對此一問題，更進一步提出諸如改變高等學府挑選學生的機制，使更多被社會認為「沒有資格」的人，能夠得到進入這道窄門的機會等方式，改變如今功績主義為王的社會氛圍。

　　本書試圖喚醒深陷其中的我們，為社會指引一條改變的道路。(文/博客來編譯)

　　A world-famous political philosopher, and the bestselling author of Justice, reveals the driving force behind the resurgence of populism: the tyranny of the meritocracy and the resentments it produces.

　　Our politics are fraught with rancor and resentment. Decades of rising inequality and stalled mobility have fueled a populist revolt against elites. But while the pundits focus on wages and jobs, they are missing a big part of the story: social esteem, and the broader moral dimensions of our current crisis.

　　In recent decades, mainstream politicians across the aisle--from Reagan to Obama--have offered a rhetoric of rising: everyone should be given an equal chance to get ahead. But the relentless focus on "equal opportunity" ignores the morally corrosive attitudes that even a fair meritocracy generates. Among the winners, it generates hubris; among the losers, humiliation. Meritocratic hubris reflects the tendency of winners to inhale too deeply of their success, to forget the luck and good fortune that helped them on their way. It diminishes our capacity to see ourselves as sharing a common fate and leaves little room for the solidarity that can arise when we reflect on the contingency of our talents and fortunes. More than a protest against immigrants, outsourcing, and stagnant wages, the populist complaint is about the tyranny of merit. And the complaint is justified.

　　In The Tyranny of Merit, a searing critique of contemporary public discourse, Michael J. Sandel, "the world's most relevant living philosopher" (Newsweek), diagnoses our political moment by seeking out its moral underpinnings. He highlights the hubris a meritocracy fosters among the winners and the indignities it inflicts on those left behind. And he offers an alternative way of thinking about success--more attentive to the role of luck in human affairs, more conducive to an ethic of humility, and more hospitable to a politics of the common good.