Excellence and Equity: On the Moral Foundations of Social Order

History has incontrovertibly validated Orwell’s depiction in Animal Farm: the bare drive for equality destroys not only liberty but equality itself, leaving the community utterly devoid of any sense of fraternity. This points to another fundamental rule of human affairs: it is the pursuit of excellence alone that brings equity to fruition. In fact, the very idea of equity emerges only when the value of human excellence is recognised and actively pursued; it cannot arise otherwise.

This brings us to a puzzling aspect of the unfolding story of the United States: a nation that occupies a commanding position in technological, economic, and institutional excellence in the modern world. It is deeply unsettling that, for certain elites, the pursuit of excellence degenerates into unbridled aggression or unrestrained sensual indulgence. What is at stake here is not individual moral failure alone, but a structural distortion in which success is increasingly measured by domination, spectacle, and excess rather than by contribution to human flourishing. This is certainly not the Protestant ethic that underpinned modern capitalism.

Excellence is intrinsically multidimensional, and at its core lies the elevation of human life through the disciplined pursuit of one’s highest capacities. The domains of excellence are manifold—service, art, literature, philosophy, science, sports, and beyond. Wealth and power are merely instrumental; they acquire meaning only insofar as they serve these higher ends.

However, entrepreneurial excellence must not be undermined, but wealth finds its meaning and purpose only when its possession elevates the holder through aesthetic pursuits and charity, rather than descending into monstrous indulgence in carnal pleasure or the sadistic thrill of domination, and when the enterprise helps meet the genuine needs of people and contributes to the betterment of life. When it does otherwise, it is demonic.

Niraj Kumar Jha