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We are truly living in an age of winners and losers, in which the chances are stacked in favor of the already successful and fortunate. In every corner of the world, hampered social mobility and rooted inequality give the tale to American creed that "you can make it if you try." The outcome is a mixture of anger and disappointment that has fueled populist protest and extreme polarization and led to a profound distrust of both government and our fellow citizens - leaving us morally unprepared to meet the severe challenges of our times.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, the US, like many other countries, was unprepared. This lack of preparation had multiple sources. Our political leaders, ignoring public health advisors' warnings, downplayed the crisis for several critical weeks. Here in America, decades of outsourcing by businesses had left the country almost entirely reliant on China and other foreign manufacturers for surgical masks and medical gear. But beyond our lack of logistical preparation, America was not morally prepared for the pandemic. The years leading up to the crisis were a time of intense divisions - economic, cultural, political. Decades of rising disparity and cultural hostility had brought an angry populist backlash in 2016, resulting in the election of Donald Trump. Morally, the pandemic reminded us of our vulnerability, of our mutual dependence; "we are all in this together." But living through the pandemic in my hometown of Pittsburgh, this promise that "we are all in this together" did not represent a sense of community embodied in an ongoing practice of mutual obligation and shared sacrifice. On the contrary, it emerged on the scene at a time of nearly unparalleled inequality and partisan acrimony. The same market-driven globalization that had left America without access to the domestic production of surgical masks and medicines had denied a great many working people of well-paying jobs and social respect. Meanwhile, those who received the economic prize of global markets supply chains and capital flows had come to rely less and less on their fellow citizens, as producers, and as consumers. Their economic prospects and identities were no longer dependent on local or national communities. As the winners of globalization pulled away from the loser, they followed their own kind of social distancing. The political divide that mattered, the winner revealed, was no longer left vs. right but open vs. closed. Success depends on education in an open world, providing ourselves to compete and win in a global economy. This means that governments must ensure that everyone has an equal chance to get the education on which success depends. But it also means that those who arrive on top come to believe that they deserve their success. And, if opportunities are truly equal, it means that those who are left behind deserve their fate as well. This way of thinking about success makes it really difficult to believe that "we are all in this together." It encourages the winners to consider their success their own doing and the losers to feel that those on top are looking down with hatred. It helps explain why those left behind by globalization would become angry and resentful, and why they would be drawn to authoritarian populists who rail against elites and promise to reassert national borders with revenge. Now, it is these political figures, cautious though they are of scientific expertise and global cooperation, who must fight with the pandemic. It will not be easy. Mobilizing to confront the global public health crisis we face requires medical and scientific expertise and moral and political renewal. The toxic mix of hubris and hate that propped populists politicians to power is not a likely source of the solidarity we need now. Perhaps any hope of restoring our moral and civic life depends on understanding how our social bonds and respect for one another came unraveled over the past four decades. I have invited my mentorship students to join the conversation with me by reading The Tyranny of Merit - What's become of the common good? By Michael J. Sandel. He argues that to defeat the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes towards success and failure that have accompanied globalization and rising inequality. He shows the hubris a meritocracy creates among the winners and the harsh judgment it imposes on those left behind and traces the dreadful consequence across a wide swath of American life. 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 solidarity, and more affirming of the dignity of work. As we are graduating and looking to find a job and build a life, we need to also point toward a hopeful vision of a new politics of the common good with humility. Such humility is the beginning of the way back from the harsh ethic of success that drives us apart. It points beyond the tyranny of merit towards a less rancorous, more generous public life.
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My students often ask me about politics in America. As a lifelong history student, I usually tell my students that it is far more essential to learn and be informed than emotionally reacting to America's political atmosphere.
In the midst of the historic coronavirus pandemic, economic hardship, and a reckoning over racism, this November, Americans will decide who leads the nation for the next four years. Many international students are watching this election season with anxiety, fear, and stress. Regardless of our political ideologies or emotions, it is far more crucial to be informed about the 2020 election and put aside our preferences and feelings. We are six weeks from one of the most essential and contentious elections in generations, and every day seems to bring a new outrage, controversy, or crisis. As I am writing this article, the political battle lines surrounding the replacement of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg following her death on Friday is adding more fuel to the fire. And of course, the grim milestone that the US passed 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus. No doubt, there will be more crises in the days to come. I highly recommend every international student to watch the new Frontline documentary. In the run-up to every presidential election since 1988, The Choice, a documentary featuring interwoven biographies of the two major-party candidates, Each election cycle, the candidates have had their unique themes. This year, there is no question: The theme is crisis. The Choice 2020, zeros in on how President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden each have been forged by their crises, from childhood onward - and how those challenges have shaped their very different approaches to leading a nation now in crisis. This documentary will hear from friends, family, colleagues, and critics of each candidate. We will also learn how both men have responded to crises and conflicts throughout their lives. Hopefully, we will come away with valuable insights into how each man would confront the enormous challenges facing whoever is sworn in as president in January 2021. My advice to all my students: Try being informed instead of just opinionated. |
AuthorRoozbeh, born in Tehran - Iran (March 1984) Archives
December 2024
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