Rich American men,
who tend to live longer than the average citizens of any other country, now
live 15 years longer than poor American men, who endure only as long as men in
Sudan and Pakistan.
There is no denying
that today's elite may be among the more socially concerned elites in
history. But it is also, by the cold
logic of numbers, among the more predatory in history. By refusing to risk its way of life, by
rejecting the idea that the powerful might have to sacrifice for the common
good, it clings to a set of social arrangements that allow it to monopolize
progress and then give it symbolic scraps to the forsaken -- many of whom
wouldn't need the scraps if the society were working right.
This idea that
self-love trickles down to others is an early ancestor of win-win-ism.
Ubers and Airbnbs
and Facebooks and Googles of the world are at once radically democratic and
dangerously oligarchic.
It is not inevitable
that what passes for progress in our age involves the concentration of power
into a small number of hands and the issuance of stories about the powerful
being fighters for the little guy.
The more genuine
criticism is left out and the more sunny, actionable, takeaway-prone ideas are
elevated, the shallower the very idea of change becomes. When a thought leader strips politics and
perpetrators from a problem, she often gains access to a bigger platform to
influence change-makers -- but she also adds to the vast pile of stories
promoted... that tell us that change is easy, is a win-win, and
doesn't require sacrifice.
