Four Books, Big Questions
This is just an initiative to pose influential questions into our daily lives. I am grateful to my professors at Bogazici University for introducing the bright studies of many scholars during our courses. The following books I have read recently have a very complementary arguments on the overarching questions we raise from time to time.
??"Global Inequality" by Branko Milanovic?
How we land in the time we currently live with global inequalities, in addition to national ones, getting more and more sensible. A very recent phenomenon of globalization brought a significant uplift for the richest top and middle class of emerging economies, it structuralized the global supply chains, and decided who gets what depending on the country we live in, with less regard to what we do.?
??"What Money Can’t Buy" by Michael Sandel
The picture is strengthened by the intriguing questioning of the fact that almost everything is up for sale in today’s world. From prison cell upgrade to the right to shoot an endangered rhino, and also a basic cutting line in a queue. Even political influence and betting on elderly lives have become commodities bought and sold, apart from a good education and healthcare.?
The author Michael Sandel points out the problem by underlining two reasons: Inequality and Corruption. Inequality in the sense that in a society where everything is bought and sold, having money makes all the difference, sustaining and widening the gap between social groups. Corruption in the sense that the market sets not only prices but also norms. If prices diffuse into non-market spheres (such as voting), it corrupts the meaning of the actions and crowds out non-market norms.?
At this point, we should be careful about what should be (not could be) priced and what shouldn’t. Otherwise, what begins as a market mechanism becomes a market norm and fosters the transformation from a market economy to a market society.?
?? "On Being Human" by Erich Fromm
A couple of decades before Sandel’s analysis, this conclusion was also criticized by Erich Fromm in 1994 from an individual perspective. On Being Human, Fromm draws a very distinct picture of how 20. century individual became a disappointment, after the peak of history of growth. He radically puts how human life becomes an enterprise, a capital to make a profit from. With increasing production and consumption habits, individuals transfer their existence to objects they have, which become more and more addictive.?
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Governed by the icons he created, human beings were alienated from themselves. Dreamed to be an enlightened individual, 20. century humans became an atom bouncing from one wall to another. Social necessities formed individual ones and turned out to be social characteristics, matching the market society concept of Michael Sandel.
Fromm’s main criticism is the dominance of “TO HAVE” over “TO BE” in governing and directing individual lives. In such a mechanism, he concludes that after 19. century phenomenon of “God is dead”, 20. century idea became “Human is dead”. Human life becomes an enterprise, a capital to make a profit from. With increasing production and consumption habits, individuals transfer their existence to objects they have, which become more and more addictive.?
?? Tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel?
And finally, this book criticizes the “TO BE” journey of post-modern individuals in a market-driven condition. Sandel puts very macro assumptions into the spotlight for example “Does talent deserve the reward it takes today?”, and further questions “How do we deserve the talent we have?” or “Do we have control over having it, or how it will be rewarded?”. He then argues whether people who climbed up the ladder of social mobility as a result of market rewards distributed based on the market value of goods/services they sell deserve their position and have a right to look over to those who cannot.?
The influential discussion I will never forget is talent we have, market rewards we take, and the value society puts on goods and services we sell are all beyond our control. Luck and fate, the demand on our work are at least equally worthy of reference to our successes, as much as our effort. Therefore, success should not disregard the gratitude to society and conditions.?
Moreover, increasing emphasis on the traditional understanding of merit attributed to college education, success coming from monetary rewards, fame, etc. not only creates tyrannical myths but also poses a resentment on those who are left behind. This resentment is fueled by economic reasons, and also by superficial moral and cultural ones, paving the way for damaged social esteem. All of which resulted in rationally unexplainable support for authoritarian populism.?
The author explains the danger of the meritocratic myth under three main damages it gives to society:
?? All topics elaborated by the four books are strikingly visible in our daily lives and relations with the outside world, as well as interactions with people and society. I did not want to show off some information that is available to everyone, but just wanted to leave some question marks in your daily routine about the very basic assumptions we live with. While answers are quite far from being clear, it is exciting to live in a century that will witness the birth of a new era.