Why an anti-meritocratic society would be a better society
In the parable from the Book of Matthew (Matthew 20:1-16), Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as a landowner who hires laborers at different times during the day to work in his vineyard.
Despite working varying hours, all the workers receive the same wage at the end of the day, which causes those hired early in the morning to complain that it's unfair.
The landowner responds that he's not unjust, as they agreed to the wage, and he has the right to be generous to those hired later.
This parable shows two different perspectives we can adopt when looking at people's efforts and our attitude towards them: (1) the meritocratic perspective and (2) the perspective of generosity.
Generosity trumps merit
We can sense the indignation of the laborers who worked more hours than those hired later. The first group was operating under a meritocratic logic.
“We have worked more hours than they have. We have pruned and cared for more vines than they have. Our effort and the results we have produced should be rewarded differently. Our reward should be greater.”
However, the vineyard owner was not acting from a meritocratic paradigm. This is evident when the landowner responds to the worker, “Are you envious because I am generous?”
In my view, this biblical passage reveals that the Kingdom of Heaven operates on the ethics of generosity. This naturally goes against the capitalist and globalist programming in which we have been raised.
Understood in this way, God's reign over people's hearts is expressed through generosity and grace. However, this does not mean that there has been no effort on the part of the workers. Work or doing something properly dignifies a person because their contribution is recognized.
Here, Calvinists can claim what they want, but as I understand it, effort does not negate God's generosity and grace. Dallas Willard expresses this idea accurately.
“Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action.”
— Dallas Willard, The Great Omission.
In this quote, Willard mentions the word “grace,” but he could just as well have used the word “generosity” because generosity is an expression of grace. The most essential trait of grace is that it gives or delivers something to someone without them having “earned” or “deserved” it.
In the parable, we see that grace is reflected in the fact that the last workers were given more money for the hours they had worked.
The owner's grace or generosity is expressed in making the last workers first. In other words, the last received the same as the first.
A society predicated on generosity
The human spirit in its divine version does not operate under the tyranny of merit. The meritocratic ideal has a commercialized conception of the human being, seeing them as insufficient and needing to prove their worth, or rather, earn it.
However, a society built on generosity presupposes a conception of the human being as an agent full of value, regardless of their productive capacity.
This is not to minimize the role of effort and the importance of contributing excellently to the common good through work.
My intention is to give visibility to a better path: grace or generosity as the foundation of human relationships.
This attitude, instead of justifying inequality, remedies it by treating the “last”–the undervalued, the “not so bright”–as if they were “first.”
That is to say, generosity acts from a place of love towards “the foolish” and “the weak” according to our current world, to give them the same dignity that is given to those whom the era of merit calls “wise” and “strong.”
Perhaps, after all, grace is the most powerful tool to eliminate social inequality.
