society

The Carnival Game of Meritocracy

Why the "self-made" myth ignores who pays for the tickets, who gets to throw the darts, and who works the booth.

Odin Halvorson

25 Feb 2026 — 2 min read

I saw an interesting discussion recently referencing a 2017 post on Hacker News, and it perfectly illustrated a fundamental truth about how we view success. It comes down to this: the concept of "meritocracy" in our society is, at its core, a lot like a carnival game.

Imagine a dart booth. There is a wall of little targets, and the better your aim (the closer to the center you strike) the better the prizes. The more darts you successfully land in the bullseye, the bigger and better the rewards become.

In our society, most folks who are in the middle class get a throw. Maybe two throws, right? That is what they can afford.

Chances are, they'll hit something. It probably won't be very big. You have to remember, this is a carnival, and the carnies have weighted the heck out of those little darts so they don't fly where you expect them to. But with one or two throws, you'll likely walk away with a small prize. It won't be worth the actual cost of your ticket, of course, but it might make you feel good about yourself. You might have a little bit of fun.

The Privilege of Persistence

Now, look at someone who is wealthy and shows up to the dart booth. They can afford more throws. Actually, they can keep throwing over, and over, and over again.

Look at me. How grand am I? What diligence and perseverance I possess! What strength of wit, and skill, and will, and vigor!

It doesn't matter if they miss. It doesn't matter if they only hit the small targets at first. They can keep throwing until they hit as many targets as they want and walk away with the biggest possible prizes.

And when they win, they are going to feel ecstatic about themselves. They are going to be bouncing off the walls, thinking: Look at me. How grand am I? What diligence and perseverance I possess! What strength of wit, and skill, and will, and vigor! They will believe all of this, completely ignoring the fact that they had effectively unlimited opportunities to throw the damn dart.

Those few who can keep throwing, who can keep pouring resources into the game (or who have families that keep pouring resources into it for them) will eventually go through life with the absolute belief that they earned what they got.

Such people believe that by simply persisting in the use of their privilege and power, they have reached a point of human excellence that puts them entirely beyond the capabilities of the ordinary person.

Now, contrast all of that to the poor kids.

How many throws do you think the poor kids get in this meritocracy?

You're probably wrong.

Because the poor kids aren't the ones out there throwing the darts at all.

They're the underpaid workers behind the counter, caught between carnies and capitalists, just trying to survive.

I’m Odin Halvorson, a librarian, life coach, and fiction author. If you like my work and want to support what we do here at Unenlightened Generalists, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter for as little as $2.50 a month!

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