Against Meritocracy by Jo Littler

Author:Jo Littler [Littler, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017-08-15T22:00:00+00:00

In these terms we can see how the ideology of neoliberal meritocracy works for the rich in particular: how supremely easy and how very profitable it is for them to believe it is the best social system. Of course, it is not the case that all the rich are wholly comfortable with this system. The billionaire Warren Buffett for example has regularly called for the rich to be taxed: a minority of the 1% are uncomfortable with the extent of ‘the divide’ (Hecht 2014). Still, others are profoundly comfortable with it. Indeed, a far larger proportion actively campaign for a continuation of their rights, whether on an overt level (such as the bankers who formed the ‘Occupy Occupy Wall Street’ protest or Boris Johnson arguing that the rich should be taxed far less as they provide a public service) or on a covert level (through passive acquiescence or the extensive networks of discreet lobbying) (Johnson 2013; Billera 2011; Monbiot 2016; Stauber and Rampton 1995). Indeed, we can see how very easy it is for the ultra-rich who are the main social group experiencing social mobility to believe, or to try to believe, in the widely peddled idea of neoliberal meritocracy’s upward mobility: for it is their own experience as well as suiting their vested financial interests.

The following sections consider how wealthy elites publicly negotiate the ideology of meritocracy in media discourse. Of course, not all wealthy elites are keen to show themselves in public at all: financial elites are less conspicuously or publicly individualised. The sections of the rich that do tend to court and be subject to media representation are framed in a variety of ways to appear egalitarian and, in the process, often draw on meritocratic discourse. In this chapter I identify three forms which do so. First, those sections of the ultra-wealthy who try to appear profoundly ordinary or normal, or what I call ‘normcore plutocrats’. Second, the idea that the rich look after us, or are what I term ‘kind parents’; and third, the seductive yet potentially more risky position of the ‘luxury-flaunter’. These are, of course, not hermetic categories or consistent social types but rather prevalent cultural–political motifs or tropes which gain traction through their seemingly endless media repetition.

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