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Pessimism is for losers
Translated from Dutch. View the original post
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#Watmijopvielindekrant What will it take to steer our economy safely through the 21st century? How do we close the gap between elite and population? And what is needed to really tackle the climate problem? Many people have lost faith in traditional politics. Out of fear, powerlessness or anger, they search the ends of the spectrum.
How does the government become reliable again and the big companies regain respect? In an exciting exchange of letters, two critical thinkers from different generations discuss urgent solutions to the big questions of our time. Kees van Lade played a key role in the international part of Dutch business for decades. Joris Luyendijk, thirty years younger, who, as a writer and journalist, regularly criticized government and banking, replies to him.
Astute letters about business, the bonus madness, the Brexit, about power, morality and about new ways to get a fairer society. Pessimism for losers is an at times disturbing, and finally optimistic book, in which the experiences and visions of Van Lde and Luyendijk complement each other and inspire the reader.
How does the government become reliable again and the big companies regain respect? In an exciting exchange of letters, two critical thinkers from different generations discuss urgent solutions to the big questions of our time. Kees van Lade played a key role in the international part of Dutch business for decades. Joris Luyendijk, thirty years younger, who, as a writer and journalist, regularly criticized government and banking, replies to him.
Astute letters about business, the bonus madness, the Brexit, about power, morality and about new ways to get a fairer society. Pessimism for losers is an at times disturbing, and finally optimistic book, in which the experiences and visions of Van Lde and Luyendijk complement each other and inspire the reader.
Is the Netherlands a meritocracy? “No,” says Joris Luyendijk. “We can't be either, and even if we are, we're not there yet.” Luyendijk describes meritocracy as an ideology, the idea that people with equal talents should have equal opportunities.
Clave
The 'upliftment' of the past forty years has resulted in every executive and executive from the upper middle class, says Luyendijk. “As a result, you now have a sort of caste of 25 percent higher educated people who actually don't get in touch with the people for whom they make the rules and make decisions.” See the gap between the elite and the highly educated.
Elites are of all times. But the problem with the current elite is that she doesn't take her responsibility, says Luyendijk, who quotes Jort Basement.
Anne-Fleur and Kimberley
“The key word is under-advisory,” says Luyendijk. For identical cito-scores, children with higher educated parents receive on average half a school type higher advice than children from parents with MBO. “If Anne-Fleur and Kimberley have the same score, then of course Kimberley is smarter. Because Anne-Fleur is stimulated in every possible way, and Kimberley is not. Then we send Anne-Fleur to the gymnasium and Kimberley to the havo/vwo. There is something really going wrong.”
In the newly published book Pessimisme is voor losers (an exchange of letters between Luyendijk and former CEO Kees van Lede) Luyendijk sketches an image of a world disconnected elite. He writes: “Isn't the summit in a bubble, where, for example, the disadvantages and risks of free trade, immigration and globalisation remain almost entirely out of the picture? Because the opponents, the disadvantaged and the losers of open borders never sit at the table at such clubs.”
“Because we have the self-image of a meritocracy, the people who sit at the top think: wanting is possible, and success is a choice. They obviously wanted it enough, and they made the right choices. If only the other people should have made those choices. And that is such a misunderstanding of how the world works.”
Clave
The 'upliftment' of the past forty years has resulted in every executive and executive from the upper middle class, says Luyendijk. “As a result, you now have a sort of caste of 25 percent higher educated people who actually don't get in touch with the people for whom they make the rules and make decisions.” See the gap between the elite and the highly educated.
Elites are of all times. But the problem with the current elite is that she doesn't take her responsibility, says Luyendijk, who quotes Jort Basement.
Anne-Fleur and Kimberley
“The key word is under-advisory,” says Luyendijk. For identical cito-scores, children with higher educated parents receive on average half a school type higher advice than children from parents with MBO. “If Anne-Fleur and Kimberley have the same score, then of course Kimberley is smarter. Because Anne-Fleur is stimulated in every possible way, and Kimberley is not. Then we send Anne-Fleur to the gymnasium and Kimberley to the havo/vwo. There is something really going wrong.”
In the newly published book Pessimisme is voor losers (an exchange of letters between Luyendijk and former CEO Kees van Lede) Luyendijk sketches an image of a world disconnected elite. He writes: “Isn't the summit in a bubble, where, for example, the disadvantages and risks of free trade, immigration and globalisation remain almost entirely out of the picture? Because the opponents, the disadvantaged and the losers of open borders never sit at the table at such clubs.”
“Because we have the self-image of a meritocracy, the people who sit at the top think: wanting is possible, and success is a choice. They obviously wanted it enough, and they made the right choices. If only the other people should have made those choices. And that is such a misunderstanding of how the world works.”
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