Kaitlyn Finchler
Contributing Writer
On the outside, it may look like those who “have it all” are the happiest and flourishing the most in their lives. However, access and resources come at a cost, and not everyone can afford it.
Jonathan Lee Walton, president of Princeton Theological Seminary, will deliver his lecture “Chasing Butterflies: The Prosperity, Ethic and Spirit of Consumerism” for the Week Five Interfaith Lecture Series theme “The Spirit of Capitalism: Prosperity and the Enduring Legacy of the Protestant Work Ethic,” at 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy.
The week’s theme explores The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by German sociologist Max Weber, which argues the Protestant work ethic — associated with frugality, hard work and thrift — undergirded the rise of modern capitalism.
“I’m going to argue that it was more of a lament from Weber, for an age of this Victorian liberalism that was largely ethically inadequate for the moment which they found themselves,” Walton said.
To this effect, Walton said he will speak to “what it means for us” to live in this new Gilded Age, where language used now is very similar to the language of Weber’s day. This language is largely “meritocracy,” Walton said.
“I am suggesting, in this new Gilded Age, in the same way, what we (say) about merit is totally inadequate to speak to a culture and a society that is grossly inequitable as it relates to recourses, as it relates to access (and) as it relates to opportunity,” Walton said.
Using data from college admissions at elite institutions like Yale, Stanford, Harvard and Princeton universities, Walton said, is “pretty telling” when it comes to meritocracy: there are more students who are part of the “top 1%” of the income distribution.
“If we’re talking about merit, what’s merit measured by?” Walton said. “It’s largely measured by, ‘Do you have the income and the resources for SAT preparation? For private schools that offer advanced AP courses? For private coaching? For private sports leagues?’ … All of the things that would be quality of merit, the direct correlation is household income.”
While he said people can talk about the language of merit and “who deserves what,” what is really being talked about is who has access to the “varying things of which merit is assessed,” Walton said.
Taking his approach to “people like myself,” Walton said he’s concerned about what it means for people like him and their children, who have all of the right opportunities but, according to the U.S. Surgeon General, are facing a public health warning about their children’s mental health.
“What does it mean that so many young people, who have enormous access and enormous resources, have largely consumed the belief in the meritocracy?” he said.
“That they have five options — they can be in high finance, they can be a lawyer, they can be a doctor, they can be an engineer or they can be a loser. Or, if they don’t get into their top school, that somehow they’re a failure.”
There’s a “certain prevailing ideology” in meritocracy that everyone is getting a “raw deal,” Walton said. It’s “clearly not working” for the vast majority of society.
“It’s arrested our imaginations from different ethical possibilities,” Walton said. “So, (with) Max Weber, we hold on to the Protestant ethic, even when we have evidence that it doesn’t work. Therefore, it’s doing more harm.” However, Walton said there are aspects of the Protestant work ethic worth lifting up.
“Work like everything depends on you, and then receive the gift of it like it’s all a gift from God,” he said.
Further, institutions bring people together — which is part of the human connection, Walton said.
“Institutions are declining in significance just like affiliation has been in decline over the last few decades,” Walton said. “People are part of a lot less community-based organizations that bring us together across lines of differences.”
Describing the lack of affiliation as a “public health concern,” Walton said whether it’s through faith or civic-based communities, affiliation keeps “diseases of despair” — such as loneliness, addiction, alcoholism and depression — away.
“The things that we’re giving our children and grandchildren, that we think are leading them to success, are possibly causing us not to have time for the very thing that public health officials have informed us actually do lead to their resilience flourishing,” Walton said.
