WINNERS TAKE ALL
By “Anand
Giridharadas”
W
|
hat
explains the spreading backlash against the global elite? In this revelatory
investigation, Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new
gilded age, showing how the elite follow a ‘win-win’ logic, fighting for
equality and justice any way they can – except ways that threaten their
position at the top.
Going
into this book spontaneously might not have been a good idea at all, but when
you are too busy in your head thinking about all the change you will bring one
day, such a book will find you itself. But for those who are willing to explore
this book, let me be a guide to what this book is really about: it is about
America, and all the leading companies and the global elites that run most of
her economy that have now decided to become, out of arguably personal needs,
change-makers. But they have miserably failed to do so, Giridharadas says.
While being mainly about America, a reader from an almost unknown city of
Pakistan might struggle to find a relevance, however, as one finishes the book,
he knows he has just made an intellectual journey through the cleverly tangled
and misdirected world of the do-gooders – and he is very much cautious not to
become one of them later at the crucial part of his life.
But
this journey, however entertaining, is for the most part very difficult to
succumb to. As you begin to go through the early chapters, ‘Winners Take All’
seems too biased, and almost a hate-speech.
If you have followed the contemporary Western thinkers on the TED talks and
their books, be ready to read through some of the most shocking insights into
their unheard effects on the collective collapse of the society. In its
repetitiveness of these uncomfortable, at times un-asked for, insights, you
hear Giridharadas ranting about all the people you have admired, become one by
one very questionable, and not so-inspiring. Although it reaches a point where
it may get too bitter to continue reading, deep down there is an awakening taking
place that completes the picture of which we have only seen the beautiful parts
of. From here on, it is a full on rebellion.
In
this brave rebellion, as you continue to participate, at times unwillingly, by
keeping your eyes open to these not-so-comfortable-and-hopeful realities, you
then start to see that Giridharadas has a more tender and helpful ideology
behind this, what The Guardians called, “superb
hate-read”. Giridharadas is not against the help and aid that is being
offered by these too-rich change-makers, he is aiming for the misdirection of
it. “Wealth is an orchard tree; you can give away the fruit, but not the tree”,
he says at one point, and follows it by, “inspire the rich to do good but never
tell them to do less harm; inspire them to give more, but never take less;
inspire them to join the solution, but never tell them of being part of the
problem.” If you are at once feeding endlessly from a system, and on the other
hand, you help those crushed by this system, then it doesn’t help at all.
Correct the system, and the rest follows – but it is a hard thing to do if your
salary depends on it, isn’t it?
Winners
Take All: the title is at once both sarcastic and inviting. While it sums up
the whole book that the winners, who are the promoters of win-win-ism, at the end of the day, do take the whole of it: fame,
wealth, goodwill and so on; the poor, the slum dogs, the common people upon
which the system stands, remains both poor and at the same time, gets even
poorer. But it could also be taken as a clickbait for those aspiring, talented,
yet lost and misdirected youngsters as an aim to become one of those winners
when the opportunity hits – after all, who doesn’t a lavish life? Especially
when you come from the slums. This very selfishness and lack of belonging blurs
the vision of the most suffered and hardworking people once they get to climb
the ladder. Instead of breaking the wall, they prefer the ladder to get to the
other side with the elites. And when the elites on the other side are so great
and clever on their professional sympathy, the transition gets even smoother.
No guilt whatsoever.
Another
thing that has contributed to this no-guilt, we-are-angels ideologies of these
philanthropists and change-makers, is Andrew Carnegie’s essay The Gospel of Wealth, in which he argues
that poverty and injustice is an inevitable part of progress. And it is the job
of the elites to decide who and how to help, for the common people, or the
poorest of them suffering, are too insufficient to even attend to these
problems. This whole essay written, published, admired, accepted, and then
implemented, gives you shocking goosebumps. In other words, Carnegie says, that
among we people, few of us are gods who decide the fate of others. Alongside
this shocking truth, there are many other examples, which combined have really
normalized this class divide to the point that it has become un-bothering. The
gap have become so huge that the attempt to close it seems too far-fetched of
an idea – undoable in other words. So either you live a poor life, or you work
hard enough and be exceptional enough to become of them.
Giridharadas
has written this book as a walkthrough and commentary of many, many such big
examples that has contributed to this unbalanced state of having too many poor
people, and very few rich ones who are only rightful to help, if they choose
to. And the reality of it really hits you. You are left, towards the end of
this book, asking yourself: who is really good, like purely good, in this
world? Who really gets it, and then does something meaningful about it? And
then your thoughts turn towards yourself – what am I really up against? It is
not becoming or belonging to any of the modern world brands: change-makers, philanthropist, do-gooders,
globalist; and meanwhile keeping a burning and humane check of your and
others’ suffering, to succeed one day, against all the desirable choices, in
helping the masses by rejecting the impure system. It is after all, in its
truest means, helping the others, but not by adding more tech, NGOs, organizations,
campaigns and so on, but really helping them without any brands. We need to aim
for a more equal and just system, where everyone has a say and right to
contribute to bring the much needed balance.
An Excerpt:
“Many of them believed there
was more power in building up what was good than in challenging what was bad.”
Giridharadas
may be taken by the giant corporate like a young child shouting, speaking the
bitter truths, but his aim is to awaken the masses to their unfair lives that
they have mastered living. He warns us not be fooled and misguided by the
surface-level-sympathies these elites show us, for what we suffer is their
doing in the first place. And their efforts are just a pat on our wounds, not
its healing. And he also very much alarms us of the trap of becoming one of
these brands – that at one point when we reach a position, and we all do reach
this point on different levels, let us choose what is right for all and not
only for us and the immediate beneficiaries. Giridharadas may not be enough,
but the readers of this book and the awakened ones might just be enough to raise
a big enough voice on behalf of all of us that would one day build a fair
system, or something very close to it.
My praise for the book:
“A
brave, starkly complete and a very important book;
An
emphathic alarm to both the global elites and the commoners.”
Rating: 4.5/5 ****
A review by: Ejaz
Hosseini
November 11, 2019