What do you
think about Sandel's theories about what led to
the rise of politicians such as Bolsonaro or Trump? Does a meritocracy encourage attitudes of resentment or
entitlement? Is meritocracy able to cope
with technological unemployment? How can
democracy encourage more substantive debates, if that is indeed a solution
to these problems?
As the article mentions that many right-hand parties have risen in dominant states such as Germany, Italy, France, or the US is definitely true. Therefore left-hand socialist and democratic parties have slowly but surely fallen to the ground. This is a fact that an ordinary person doesn’t realize unless told. Maybe not in the US, but in the other mentioned countries this change is less obvious for ordinary people and since the right-hand parties “manipulate” those citizens with their propaganda, they become easily influenced. In my opinion, this is why left-hand parties slowly loose popularity. Because of the fear from the current world situation, and I agree that something should be done in order to change the fact, or slowly we will start losing our democracy.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the point about people slowly becoming more demotivated towards success and wealthy lifestyle if coming from a poorer background. It sure is more difficult to become rich and successful if you weren’t given the resources, since there is larger competition. However, I wouldn’t necessarily state it as almost impossible. In my opinion if someone really is motivated and hardworking enough, they can succeed. The society nowadays is just more lazy in general. People are less motivated and refuse to work, making up excuses such as it being impossible or unfair.
Liberals will never agree with nationalists in terms of migration and acceptation of immigrants into their countries. On one hand it can be grabbed from the positive point of view, in terms of working for the state and therefore enhancing its economic situation. On the other hand, others view it in a more negative way, as “stealing” job positions from the citizens of the given country. Since this is a very controversial topic, there isn’t a right or wrong answer, and in my opinion this topic will remain unresolved for a very long time.
In conclusion, I agree that moral and cultural issues should get more attention, and that populism should be addressed and discussed more also within ordinary people, who maybe aren’t fully aware or informed enough of what’s happening. This is an important problem that should be put out more and discussed including ordinary citizens as well, not only political parties.
@Laura, I agree with you in most of the points, but I am not sure whether someone poor can really be competitive among his “better-born” peers. Imagine being from a lower-class family, where your parents are working long hours and you have to take care of your younger siblings and do most of the household chores. Then, you’d have a part-time job, because your family would need the extra income. And finally, there are universities, which require 35+ points at the finals, so you need to study quite a lot. In one sentence, you need to spend a lot of time studying, but also spend time doing different things, with only 168 hours weekly.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, being motivated and hardworking is probably not enough to be successful, if you aim for higher education.