Would You Want to Live in a Meritocracy?

 

This college admissions bribery story has me thinking about meritocracy in general. Under meritocratic guidelines, when there’s a job opening up, you just take the most qualified person, and that’s that. Or is that really that?

Lots of the pushback against diversity quotas in education and the corporate world rest on the beneficial outcomes of meritocratic processes. If you’re going to get heart surgery, you want the guy who aced the MCAT, and all that. The whole idea of “white privilege” seems like an attempt to make the success of white people out to be the results of similar deviations from meritocracy. If you had an unfair advantage starting out, maybe you really weren’t the most qualified person for the job that led to the job you now have, etc. It’s not an exact parallel, but the rhetoric is similar. If the left hadn’t made this “white privilege” thing into an impossibly broad race-based smear, they might have had a point.

There seems to be a sort of motte-and-bailey strategy where each side pretends things are meritocratic and that meritocracy is good — except when they can point out how the exceptions to the meritocratic rubric might benefit people they aren’t fond of. (I know this implies a gross generalization, but roll with me here.)

It’s interesting that one thing nearly everyone agrees on is that “networking matters.” Some classes in business school are basically just expensive networking seminars, and probably every college advertises their networking opportunities. Well, if networking matters, we don’t live in a meritocracy. It the best people are getting hired, it doesn’t matter who you know.

If we were to actually restructure society according to the rhetoric of the critics of diversity quotas and legacy admissions, we might end up with something close to pure meritocracy. Family businesses would be illegal. Meritocracy in its pure form actually conflicts with freedom of association. It would require lots of information, which is costly to gather. Expensive and unattainable? If I have this right, meritocracy is starting to sound like other utopian ideals. Networking is a way to get around the information problem, where you make yourself a person instead of a name on a résumé. Unfortunately, some people have extensive networking opportunities and others don’t. This is anti-meritocratic, and the truth at the core of the privilege critique that is lost in the crowds of people who throw that phrase around at everyone successful and can’t help but tack on race to make it seem more insidious than it is.

Are there steps we could take to make society more meritocratic without trampling all over free association? I’m not sure that the problems of unfairness we have today are worse than the remedies would be when executed, but I’m willing to be convinced.

Published in Culture
Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 45 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. ST Member
    ST
    @

    Arizona Patriot (View Comment):
    Is a Marine sergeant still a grunt?

    I would not know.  Rank is not an MOS.  It is almost a strange question to tell you the truth.

    • #31
  2. ST Member
    ST
    @

    P.S.  Combat Engineers are ‘educated grunts’

    • #32
  3. ST Member
    ST
    @

    Arizona Patriot (View Comment):
    Many of us have kids who are grunts.

    I am not a statistician so please do not scold me too much for how this is written but it is highly unlikely that even 1 in 10 members have a ‘kid who are grunts.’  In my book 10% is not the same as many.  

    On the other hand I like grunts, but not all grunts have gentle and/ or loving parents believe it or not.

    • #33
  4. SParker Member
    SParker
    @SParker

    ExcitableBoy: Are there steps we could take to make society more meritocratic without trampling all over free association?

    The Classical Liberal way is simply to ensure that you have a free market.  No one can define “merit” adequately for every situation–any more than dictate “fair” prices–but you do know the market punishes those who get it wrong (whatever their reason for error)  and provides opportunity for the capable.  For higher education in the US, it’s just about impossible not to get a 1st-rate education if you want one, even if your college selection method involves throwing darts at a map.  It doesn’t really matter that foolish people need illusory substitutes for the “titles of nobility” the Revolution got rid of.  Work on making a free society.

    • #34
  5. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):
    The criteria for the “most qualified organist” were different depending on whether I was hiring an organist for an organ concert or hiring an organist to play for worship services.

    I see what you mean.  Doug Ingle might be tempted to break into the organ solo from In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida during Amazing Grace . . .

    • #35
  6. RyanFalcone Member
    RyanFalcone
    @RyanFalcone

    This reminds me of a great comedic bit by Owen Benjamin (which is probably not Rico-safe, so I won’t search for it) where he compares groups of men and women at a bar. The women see that one of them is more attractive and accomplished than the rest and they all respond by attacking and trying to take cut her down to size. The men see that one of them is more attractive and accomplished and they make him their “captain” and they all try to emulate him.

     

    This whole college thing has been a joke for decades. If you are going to actively let in sub-standard applicants based on race, economic background, how far they can throw a football and other such idiocies, you have to balance that out with substandard folks who can pay the bills. At least, that is what the modern egghead in the modern university believes. Lets face it, the utopia of the modern leftist is the modern college campus. There are handfuls of folks accomplishing everything, and handfuls receiving all the perks, almost everyone else is screwing, getting drunk and playing video games in a vacuous stupor that keeps them from realizing how pathetic their lives are. 

    • #36
  7. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    RyanFalcone (View Comment):
    There are handfuls of folks accomplishing everything, and handfuls receiving all the perks, almost everyone else is screwing, getting drunk and playing video games in a vacuous stupor that keeps them from realizing how pathetic their lives are. 

    You ever think about becoming a motivational speaker?

     

    • #37
  8. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    In a caste or class system, one’s status is an accident of birth.  In a raw meritocracy, status is a measure of one’s worth (however defined–intellectual, attitudinal, moral etc).  In a class system, an aristocrat can honestly acknowledge the worth and humanity of the lower classes and live as if he is grateful for the blessings of the happy accident of his status at birth.  The meritocrat tends to find it easier to blame others for their sufferings because society has told him he earned his status.

    The pre-Christmas-miracle Ebeneezer Scrooge exemplified the harsh moral calculus of an economic meritocracy.  Those who don’t work, save and act prudently are destined to suffer, as they should in his view.  The modern replacement for Scrooge’s hierarchy of virtues is doing well in school and attending elite universities, which surrogate virtues entitle one to look down on others who scored in lower percentiles.

    I have on occasion run into young lawyers who have gained admission to elite schools their entire life, achieved academic excellence and carry a sense of entitlement and an absence of gratitude that is genuinely striking.  They are also invariably leftist in their politics.

    Much of the sheer ugliness of our current politics is that those who owe their position and relative wealth to all that follows from strong SAT scores feel entitled to impose their values, opinions and preferences on their inferiors.

    It is precisely this warped and narrow notion of meritocracy which has diminished empathy, humility and gratitude in our cognitive elite which in turn has engendered an angry response from those they clearlyh despise.

    • #38
  9. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Stad (View Comment):

    ExcitableBoy: Under meritocratic guidelines, when there’s a job opening up, you just take the most qualified person, and that’s that. Or is that really that?

    Everyone hiring has their own definition of “best qualified”, and it can go beyond who has the highest GPA or scored the highest on this test or that. This is where intangibles come into play, such as how the interviewee carries himself in the job interview, or how poorly he’s dressed. Is she dressed appropriately for the future workplace, or does she look as if she’s auditioning to be Stormy Daniels’ understudy? Does she speak clearly and succintly, or slur her words and use slang?

    As for heart surgery, I’d want the doc with the best track record, regardless of his test score . . .

    This is an important feature of a competitive marketplace. I’m referring to the difference in the ability of owners or management of marketplace businesses to  outperform their competition in the personnel selection process. If I were CEO of a very competitive marketplace business, I would certainly want to have an HR function capable of excelling in this feature.

    • #39
  10. Jeff Hawkins Inactive
    Jeff Hawkins
    @JeffHawkins

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    I have on occasion run into young lawyers who have gained admission to elite schools their entire life, achieved academic excellence and carry a sense of entitlement and an absence of gratitude that is genuinely striking. They are also invariably leftist in their politics.

    Much of the sheer ugliness of our current politics is that those who owe their position and relative wealth to all that follows from strong SAT scores feel entitled to impose their values, opinions and preferences on their inferiors.

    It is precisely this warped and narrow notion of meritocracy which has diminished empathy, humility and gratitude in our cognitive elite which in turn has engendered an angry response from those they clearlyh despise.

    I recall during 2008 people making a big deal that Obama went to Harvard law (after somehow getting into an Ivy League school after flunking out of Occidental) and Sarah Palin went to 4 different colleges etc.  

    Not everyone has their life together at 18.

    I also make the corollary to actors and actresses who love to tell you how hard they work at their craft, when a lot of their success can be attributed to their look and timing.

    There are a lot of things that can be gained through merit, but there’s a lot of luck, networking, birth based ability involved in “transcendent” success.  But a culture of envy that tries to “fix” life to be fair is going to make everyone a lot more miserable.

    • #40
  11. RyanFalcone Member
    RyanFalcone
    @RyanFalcone

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    RyanFalcone (View Comment):
    There are handfuls of folks accomplishing everything, and handfuls receiving all the perks, almost everyone else is screwing, getting drunk and playing video games in a vacuous stupor that keeps them from realizing how pathetic their lives are.

    You ever think about becoming a motivational speaker?

     

    I’m too busy playing video games.

    • #41
  12. Jeff Hawkins Inactive
    Jeff Hawkins
    @JeffHawkins

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    RyanFalcone (View Comment):
    There are handfuls of folks accomplishing everything, and handfuls receiving all the perks, almost everyone else is screwing, getting drunk and playing video games in a vacuous stupor that keeps them from realizing how pathetic their lives are.

    You ever think about becoming a motivational speaker?

    One of my favorite quotes from NewsRadio

    Jimmy: Dave, I didn’t think motivation was important, either, ’till I got involved with some motivational seminars and it really changed my life.

    Dave: Really? That surprises me. I didn’t think you were the sort of person that would attend one of those. 

    Jimmy: No, I don’t. I put them together. Pack a few hundred suckers into a motel ballroom, hire an out-of-work actor to paraphrase the opening scene from “Patton”, charge ’em five-hundred bucks a pop and boom, bob’s your uncle.

     

     

    • #42
  13. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Jeff Hawkins (View Comment):

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    RyanFalcone (View Comment):
    There are handfuls of folks accomplishing everything, and handfuls receiving all the perks, almost everyone else is screwing, getting drunk and playing video games in a vacuous stupor that keeps them from realizing how pathetic their lives are.

    You ever think about becoming a motivational speaker?

    One of my favorite quotes from NewsRadio

    Jimmy: Dave, I didn’t think motivation was important, either, ’till I got involved with some motivational seminars and it really changed my life.

    Dave: Really? That surprises me. I didn’t think you were the sort of person that would attend one of those.

    Jimmy: No, I don’t. I put them together. Pack a few hundred suckers into a motel ballroom, hire an out-of-work actor to paraphrase the opening scene from “Patton”, charge ’em five-hundred bucks a pop and boom, bob’s your uncle.

     

     

    My personal favorite quote from Newradio is the episode where Dave and Lisa are retaking  the SATs and a couple of kids come up to Dave and say “Man, your mom is *fine*”.

    That’s not relevant at the moment.  But this is:

    https://vimeo.com/288644711

     

     

    • #43
  14. Misthiocracy secretly Member
    Misthiocracy secretly
    @Misthiocracy

    RyanFalcone (View Comment):

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    RyanFalcone (View Comment):
    There are handfuls of folks accomplishing everything, and handfuls receiving all the perks, almost everyone else is screwing, getting drunk and playing video games in a vacuous stupor that keeps them from realizing how pathetic their lives are.

    You ever think about becoming a motivational speaker?

     

    I’m too busy playing video games.

    “Professionally?”

    • #44
  15. Misthiocracy secretly Member
    Misthiocracy secretly
    @Misthiocracy

    SParker (View Comment):

    ExcitableBoy: Are there steps we could take to make society more meritocratic without trampling all over free association?

    The Classical Liberal way is simply to ensure that you have a free market. No one can define “merit” adequately for every situation–any more than dictate “fair” prices–but you do know the market punishes those who get it wrong (whatever their reason for error) and provides opportunity for the capable. For higher education in the US, it’s just about impossible not to get a 1st-rate education if you want one, even if your college selection method involves throwing darts at a map. It doesn’t really matter that foolish people need illusory substitutes for the “titles of nobility” the Revolution got rid of. Work on making a free society.

    Equal treatment under the law is also key. You cannot have anything close to a meritocracy when the law says that some people are more equal than others.

    Many who oppose this view are claiming that this FBI operation is proof that meritocracy is a lie, and therefore it’s also proof that Affirmative Action is necessary.

    I think one could easily argue the opposite. The FBI operation is evidence that the rule of law can work. What these people did was illegal, they have been caught, and they are being punished. Therefore Americans can (more or less) have faith that policies which treat all applicants equally can be enforced.

    The idea that when rich people are charged with a crime it’s evidence that other groups require special privileges under the law to balance the scales seems backwards to me. It seems to me that special privileges would only be necessary if rich folk weren’t being charged for their crimes.

    • #45
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.