1521 You Don’t Get What You Deserve

Merit is the idea that you get what you’ve earned, but that homily only exists within the parameters of an artifice, a game with rules that you played by and won. For the Baby Boom generation, that concept seemed true because so many people appeared to reap the benefits of their meritable actions. Unfortunately, that was an illusion caused by the unprecedented good times times brought on by America’s ascendance after the Second World War. There was plenty of opportunity and anyone willing to pursue it, even at a minimal level like holding a job, buying a house & raising a family, was rewarded in old age just from inflation alone. The rules were unquestioned because there was no reason to do so. However, in abject reality, there are no rules guiding or protecting you, and once the artificial good times ended, opportunity was replaced with nepotism & corruption. Worse, you are discriminated against for the basest of reasons: maybe you’re short, maybe you’re dumb, maybe you’re ugly? All of the people who excel over you in these physical traits will get the advantage of ever decreasing opportunities, no matter what you do; there is no deserving. Great power does not mandate great responsibility; that’s just a social refrain from short, dumb, ugly people who would otherwise always lose if competing with tall, smart, beautiful people who are related to someone important.