Did the ancient Greeks really believe all those myths? We find it hard to imagine that people trusted the Oracle of Delphi with important decisions or prayed to such a horny and mischievous god as Zeus! And yet, 2000 years later, myths are still with us.

Meritocracy

‘Success doesn’t depend on being born into wealth or privilege. It depends on effort and merit.’ Or so the former US president Barack Obama said. And yet, meritocracy is little more than a myth, one that ends up making life worse for most of us. The Wikipedia article on shoeshiners perfectly illustrates why. You’ve seen this in movies set a century ago: a poor boy on the street will clean and wax someone’s shoes for a coin. The article reads:

‘While the role is denigrated in much of Western civilization, shining shoes is an important source of income for many children and families throughout the world. Some shoeshiners offer extra services, such as shoe repairs and general tailoring. Some well-known people started their working life as shoeshiners, including singers and presidents.’

Like any good lie, this one has a little bit of truth in it. Just like a few shoeshiners have become successful, there is a teeny tiny chance you may also make it out of the hood. But the truth is that, like all the other millions of people trapped in bullshit jobs, you probably won’t strike gold. If you aren’t a nepo baby, then you’re always closer to cleaning the shoes of successful people than dining with them.

The biographies of those few people who went from rags to riches serve as more than feel-good stories. They are a useful façade to keep the myth alive, the idea that the system is fair. (The Market Exit YouTube channel has an excellent video on the topic.) It is no mistake that you’ll often hear oligarchs claiming to be self-made when they actually received millions from their families. And let’s not forget that, if success means climbing to the top in terms of wealth, that’s usually done by treating the humans around you quite badly and exploiting those you do not see – and that is no way to treat each other.

The biographies of those few people who went from rags to riches serve as more than feel-good stories. 

We do not live in a meritocracy but we want to. Even more important, we do not have to give up on this idea. We can still aim for it, while acknowledging we are far from there at this moment in time. As philosopher Catia Faria once wrote in a book about animal ethics, ‘We should be wary of cosy moral beliefs. […] If our beliefs are wrong, we should change them. If things are bad, we should act accordingly.’

Barter

While the previous example has ‘an element of truth,’ this one is a purely made-up story – and it sits at the foundation of …

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