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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
A bold, powerful, wonderful book: part satire, part a look into the future, and part a warning about where we are.
Michael Young's life is a rich and varied one filled with commitment and engagement and this 1958 essay is a milestone in a life filled wth them.
This book is written in a future Britain 2033 - which in many regards does not look that different from the present day. There are no real differences between the parties. The Labour Party as we understand it has been abolished. Education is everything in terms of getting on. Tests and measuring ability are the governing credo.
And yet this future world is not a fairer or happier place. Instead, those who are the winners in this world do so because of a narrower and narrower notion of 'ability' and 'merit' - which they see as virtuous and because they are somehow better. Seeing their individual success as a validation of their skills they see their lifestories as a success, and those who do not make it a failure.
Funnily enough, power, money and politics congregate around this 'new class', while the excluded majority - are leaderless and have no political party to represent them in the way the working class was once represented by Labour. It is in this respects Young argues that Labour is dead, and that his essay - forty years before the event - foretold the story of New Labour and its ultimate demise.
Fascinatingly, Young's essay has been completely misunderstood by not just Thatcher's children, but Wilson's before her, and Blair's children to come look likely to do the same. Young gave the the world the concept of 'meritocracy', but Thatcher/Blair et al, have consistently seen it as a positive concept when it is anything but. To Young, 'meritocracy' was the process by which the 'new class' validated its power and position.
It is no accident that our politicians go on about 'meritocracy' and shed crocodile tears for the demise of social mobility, and fail to understand their part in aiding, reinforcing and legitimising this state of affairs.
This book is one of the most original, fascinating and challenging written about 20th century Britain and the problems and dangers in society and politics today.
Rather than reading 'Blink' or 'Nudge' - the second rate soundbite sloganeering which passes for thought in our political classes today - why not read a really provoking book?
Michael Young's life is a rich and varied one filled with commitment and engagement and this 1958 essay is a milestone in a life filled wth them.
This book is written in a future Britain 2033 - which in many regards does not look that different from the present day. There are no real differences between the parties. The Labour Party as we understand it has been abolished. Education is everything in terms of getting on. Tests and measuring ability are the governing credo.
And yet this future world is not a fairer or happier place. Instead, those who are the winners in this world do so because of a narrower and narrower notion of 'ability' and 'merit' - which they see as virtuous and because they are somehow better. Seeing their individual success as a validation of their skills they see their lifestories as a success, and those who do not make it a failure.
Funnily enough, power, money and politics congregate around this 'new class', while the excluded majority - are leaderless and have no political party to represent them in the way the working class was once represented by Labour. It is in this respects Young argues that Labour is dead, and that his essay - forty years before the event - foretold the story of New Labour and its ultimate demise.
Fascinatingly, Young's essay has been completely misunderstood by not just Thatcher's children, but Wilson's before her, and Blair's children to come look likely to do the same. Young gave the the world the concept of 'meritocracy', but Thatcher/Blair et al, have consistently seen it as a positive concept when it is anything but. To Young, 'meritocracy' was the process by which the 'new class' validated its power and position.
It is no accident that our politicians go on about 'meritocracy' and shed crocodile tears for the demise of social mobility, and fail to understand their part in aiding, reinforcing and legitimising this state of affairs.
This book is one of the most original, fascinating and challenging written about 20th century Britain and the problems and dangers in society and politics today.
Rather than reading 'Blink' or 'Nudge' - the second rate soundbite sloganeering which passes for thought in our political classes today - why not read a really provoking book?
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A very important book. Little read nowadays, which is a shame. Published in the late 1950s as a prophetic warning (set in 2033) of the dangers of meritocracy, Young's dystopian vision has uncanny resonances with the fate of the modern Labour Party and labour movement. To read it whilst living under the post-1997 Labour governments was an unnerving experience. There is a rich and sad irony that Young's coining of the term 'meritocracy' was pejorative. He saw the pursuit of meritocracy as a dead end for the left. However, it became a goal lauded by politicians in precisely the way in which Young feared. To hear Gordon Brown declare increased social mobility as his chief goal is to sense Young groaning in despair from beyond the grave. However, Young's humanity also shines through. One notices his keen awareness of the despair and lack of self-esteem of those left at the bottom of the meritocratic pile. The key thing, though, is that Young correctly identifies the cause and doesn't pull any punches. Social criticism at its best.
Format:Paperback
Arguably more relevant today than when it was written, Young's book is a must read for anyone interested in modern Britain. At the same time both a thoroughly depressing and deeply motivating book: we must challenge this foolishness!
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