Can we stop with the bullshit and find the moral ambition to do better?
- Dan Connors
- 2 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference
Rutger Bregman 2024
"The biggest waste of our time is the waste of talent. All around the world, there are millions of people who could make major contributions towards creating a better world, but don’t.
There is a medicine to treat this wastage, and we call that medicine ‘moral ambition’." Rutger Bregman
We spend so much time, money, and energy preparing the next generation of leaders for something grand, but why does most of that enormous expense end up in so many wasted years and bullshit jobs? Think about it. We spend thousands and thousands of dollars on private and public schools, SAT tests, tutors, and college tuition-all to prepare our children to go out and do great things. And what do many of them end up doing? Not inventing, not innovating, and not making the world a better place. They end up being highly-paid consultants, politicians, lawyers, tech workers, marketers, "influencers," and middle-management types who take the money and run because they have little choice.
There's little choice because the cost of education has gotten so high that student loan balances can reach six-figure amounts. Also, the cost of housing and raising children means that very, very few of our best and brightest can feel safe enough to venture into riskier, unchartered waters or make ethical stands for what they think is right and fair. So they trade in their principles for a paycheck.
The term "bullshit jobs" was coined by author David Graeber, author of a book by the same name. He says that "the defining feature (of a bullshit job) is this: one so completely pointless that even the person who has to perform it every day cannot convince themselves there’s a good reason for them to be doing it. They may not be able to admit this to their co-workers – often, there are very good reasons not to do so – but they are convinced the job is pointless nonetheless." These jobs are often in service of the very wealthy and large corporations, and have little to no autonomy because they are highly paid and highly replaceable.
I thought about all this while reading Rutger Bregman's new book, Moral Ambition- stop wasting your talent and start making a difference. Bregman is a Dutch author and historian whose previous book, Humankind, paints a hopeful vision of humanity's tendencies to be ethical and kind, even in tough times. Moral Ambition is more of a call to arms for those select few who've toiled in bullshit jobs long enough.
According to Bregman there is a power law like the 80/20 rule that allows small minorities of dedicated do-gooders to make outsized contributions to society while most of us stay on the sidelines and just try to get by. He tells some interesting stories, like:
1- Thomas Clarkson, a little-known 18th century student who became an anti-slavery crusader after a simple essay. Clarkson may have been the first to light the fires of repealing slavery nearly 80 years later.
2- Ralph Nader, a lawyer who got sick of seeing corporations run roughshod over consumer rights. He recruited a similar group of idealistic lawyers, (Nader's raiders) and proved the spark that reformed automobile safety, air and water pollution, and more in the 1970's.
3- Rob Mather, a London father of four who saw one video of a burned child and became a crusader for children everywhere. Mather founded the Against Malaria Foundation to distribute insecticide treated nets in poor countries that have been proven to stop malaria before it can be transmitted. Estimates are that some 800 million cases of the disease have been prevented and 4.8 million lives saved. All from one man.
4- One lone Soviet defector, Ken Alibek, alerted the world to a secret bioweapons lab in Kazakhstan. The materials there were enough to kill the entire world's population, and it was safely dismantled before anything could fall into the wrong hands.
History is loaded with the forgotten names of courageous, unsung heroes who made the world a better place or prevented it from getting much worse. Most of us aren't so sure we could be as brave when given the chance. This book is a kick in the pants to those who have the resources to do just that.
Why are billionaires so obsessed with traveling to outer space when there's so much to be done here on earth? Elon Musk could single-handedly stop hunger in the US all by himself. Why are millions toiling away in bullshit jobs that pay okay but accomplish very little? Why are the ones who make the biggest difference for society- teachers, researchers, journalists, or scientists barely recognized or appreciated? Why don't our best and brightest use their talents for the good of all rather than the well-heeled 1%? This isn't a brain drain, it's a brain sewer.
Bregman does a good job of pointing out how people can make a difference, even if he uses a few cherry-picked examples. He even points to a school in England which he calls a Hogwarts for do-gooders. Bregman has taken that concept worldwide with his own School For Moral Ambition with the slogan "Put your ideals to work"
We are facing new challenges like climate change, artificial intelligence, income inequality, and pandemics- and these are the areas our best and brightest should be concentrating their efforts. Not how to squeeze the last penny out of a portfolio. It makes one think on what kind of difference we're really making. As a child of the 1960's I can recall how idealistic many of that decade's hippies were in wanting to create a kinder and more just world. Unfortunately, most baby boomers cut their hair and joined the Reagan Revolution of the 1980's, and are now a part of the problem.
Perhaps it is just up to a tiny portion of activists to finally make progress on the moral arc of history. The civil rights movement started with just a few brave souls and mushroomed out. So did the women's movement and the LGBT movement. There's got to be more to life than just punching in at some bullshit job and drinking to forget on the weekends. Books like this can ignite the spark somewhere, somehow.
Even the most bullshit-like job has some redeeming quality I'm guessing. Let's start by transforming those jobs by making them more relevant, fun, and imbued with kindness wherever possible. Avoid dealing with the most toxic customers. And for those of us who are the most idealistic and driven- go out there and save the planet for goodness sake. You never know which act of courage and principle will make the most difference. But the more good deeds that are out there, the more likely some of them will catch on.
How about some more inspiring quotes???
“Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room.”
— The Dalai Lama
“There is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it.”
“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say it’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem, then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
“One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.”
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
— Robert F. Kennedy