In the name of Luck

This year has not taught me anything new, but has rather brushed the dust off an old set of beliefs. A belief that life is much less a meritocratic endeavour than a succession of events in which luck plays a decisive role. In the past, this luck was often attributed to elements, gods, or God.

In our secular contemporary society even the word luck contained too many connotations of “magic thinking”. With “reason” and “logic” becoming the unshakeable foundations of our society, words that evoke too much vagueness or suggest a lack of human agency such as luck have been replaced with merit. Hence the claim that we live in a meritocracy. That those who have all the riches have achieved this status through the merit of their hard work, dedication, or “God-given” talent. I’m unsure whether those who utter these last words are aware of their inherent irony.

It follows this logic that those who are poor, destitute, or marginalised have only themselves to blame. Or in a even more cynical interpretation, they merit any suffering or hardship. I believe that that the cementation of the concept of merit is what enables capitalism and its exploitative nature to thrive and to expand across the globe. Those nations and individuals who own this wealth, at the detriment of other nations and the rest of the global population deserve to be there. Their status stems from their hard work, dedication, ruthlessness or savvy decision making, and to that alone. Luck is never uttered in the sentences that describe the achievements of these great nations or individuals, past…