Avram Alpert

But here’s the rub: Can an ethical system that promotes being the best be part of the movement for equality of opportunity? Quite simply, no, because any society with an aristocracy will inevitably enable that aristocracy to give its children tremendous advantages.

One risk in the game of greatness is that, if you win, you will begin to justify your place atop the hierarchy.

When we seek greatness for ourselves, we are trying to become maximized individuals who are the best at whatever we do not for its own sake, or because it contributes to the general welfare, but because it secures us a place atop any given social hierarchy. I have suggested that this desire in fact works against us—creating undue burdens and anxieties, forcing us into metrics that don’t match our own worth, and depriving us of the ability to grow our capacities for ordinary decency and
cooperation.

parent-child relations, for example, a greatness-orientation is about making our children into people who strive for winning in the social hierarchy and positional economy. We want our children to achieve positions in the world that reward them within the competitive system. In so doing, we try to become great par

parents who will do absolutely anything for our children so that they can be the best. The trouble is that when we try to be great parents, we put too many pressures on ourselves and create unrealistic expectations for our children; and
further, we disrupt other people’s abilities to make their own good-enough lives.

Paul Amato, a sociologist who coined the concept of the “good-enough marriage.” Amato has shown that divorce rates are highest not among people who really hate each other, but among people who think that they are just missing a bit of spark. These people tend to divorce, remarry, and then find themselves dissatisfied yet again. Average divorce rates for second marriages are thus higher, and third marriages higher still.

After all, in a winner-take-all economy with vast inequality, if you do not strive to be at the top of the economic pyramid, you run the risk of facing ongoing economic precarity.

recognizing the value of different kinds of labor as connected parts of a meaningful society, none of which is possible without the others (no presidents without janitors); (2) allowing people
to strive more for the sake of the task (excellence of the craft itself) than for wealth or mere survival; (3) ensuring respect and decency and quality of life for people not able to engage in traditional forms of labor; (4) taking concrete steps to redress past exploitation, not by vengeance, but by careful attention to integration into the good-enough, which may require consideration for those of any background who haven’t had previous advantages, or who remain subjects of stigma even when they have achieved equality in class status; (5) relying on everyone’s abilities to cooperatively participate in ways not commanded by a punitive state or corporate monopolies; (6) by bringing in more people and more technology, allowing each of us to do less, so that there is both more abundance and leisure; and (7) understanding and appreciating that the results of this system will still be imperfect, that some inequalities will remain and some failures will occur, but those inequalities will be limited and those failures will be shared by everyone, as will any success made during a recovery.

unifying theme cuts across much that troubles us in life. We can call this unifying theme greatness: a method of ordering the world so that some humans are considered better than others, humanity as a whole is considered greater than nature, and our task as individuals should be to prove ourselves worthy of possessing power and privilege. This vision of the world has given us an epidemic of stress, anxiety, inequality, and ecological damage.

A unifying theme cuts across much that troubles us in life. We can call this unifying theme greatness: a method of ordering the world so that some humans are considered better than others, humanity as a whole is considered greater than nature, and our task as individuals should be to prove ourselves worthy of possessing power and privilege. This vision of the world has given us an epidemic of stress, anxiety, inequality, and ecological damage.