Vasily Topolev - about meritocracy and happiness

Blogger Vasily Topolev writes :

“Dear reader, has it ever happened that you have not at least once tried to explain your failure by external factors, by some injustice in the structure of the world? And you were often right. But even when deep down they understood that they themselves were to blame, they were still inclined to look for external reasons.

And the search for such reasons never ends. Someone born into a family with an income of a million a month will envy someone born into a family with an income of a hundred million. The son of a general - to the son of a marshal, the son of a count - to the son of a prince.

Now imagine that there is no one to complain to. You live in a model meritocracy. Are you poor? It's your own fault. Couldn't get into university, although you tried and studied? Blame yourself, there is no one else. And so on.

After all, this will be daily torture for the majority. <…>

Korea is a country with relatively low wealth and income stratification. It is also a country of fierce competition. From the age of 12, the life of a schoolchild is subordinated to a ruthless race for a place in a university. On the day of the exam, plane flights and train traffic within cities are stopped for several hours in the country, and you can lose your driver's license for honking a horn on the street. <…> At work the competition is no less. Politics plays a tiny role in the life of the country <…>. The political struggle is quite tough, but mainly at the municipal level, where mayors are judged by their work, not their party affiliation.

At the same time, in terms of happiness <…> South Korea is in third place among OECD countries <…>. Happiness indices do not perform well when comparing countries with income levels that differ by one or two orders of magnitude. But the OECD unites only developed and almost developed <…> countries. In 2018-20, the only countries that were worse were Greece, where a severe economic crisis was just ending, and Turkey. <…>

In general, complain about the injustice of the world. First of all, you may be right. And even if not, it’s psychologically easier. But be careful, otherwise you will become Akim Apachevs.”