Michael Sandel

Michael Sandel is not against success. What he is against is the story we tell about it. In The Tyranny of Merit (2020), the Harvard political philosopher argues that meritocracy — long celebrated as the fairest way to organize society — has become a source of hubris for those at the top and humiliation for those left behind. The result, he contends, is not just inequality, but a deep moral and political crisis that helped fuel the populist backlash of the 2010s. …