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Best Brightest

 His his book The Tyranny of Merit, Michael Sandel writes:

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 is the smug conviction of those who land on top that they deserve their fate, and that those on the bottom deserve theirs, too. This attitude is the moral companion of technocratic politics.

Many places I have worked and clients whose organizations I have come to know well have made this inhalation of success the author describes a part of the corporate culture, brand identity and building team morale. We hire only the best, you would not be here if you were not exceptional - is the language routinely used to make new hires feel like they have arrived in workplace heaven by the sheer force of their merit.

I have found such exhortations cringe-worthy and have only seen it promote anxiety among those touted as being the "best and the brightest". Who then is the brightest of them all, what rope-tricks must one perform to rise to the top of this sea of meritocracy. Nothing good comes of it from what I can tell even within the walled garden of self-professed excellence. It is no surprise that this egotistical collective will look down upon the so-called less meritorious and claim that their lack of achievement and success is well deserved. 


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