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Misha talks with Adrian Wooldridge, political editor of The Economist, about his new book, The Aristocracy of Talent. They discuss the history of meritocracy in China, and look at how meritocracy works and doesn’t work today, in China, Singapore, Japan, and the West. Plus, he names his favorite “meritocracy movie”!
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Thank you for the discussion. The only thing I would add is that the Catholic Church was an early system of meritocracy. It was obviously not as extensive as the Confucian system but I think it allowed young people with talent to move ahead in society. I only mention this because I do think that academia (the British and Europeans especially) tend to forget the role of the Church since they are so secular now.
An alternate portrayal of the same facts is that the rebuilding Chinese civilization in the 20th century did not revive their tradition of classical education because their communist revolution had killed them all. Normally the new dynasty would rebuild from the remnants of scholarship, as prior dynasties had done many times before. This time the communists chose to import western civilization instead.
I expect a revival of Chinese classics over the next generation or two, as the coming booms and busts of their economics are blamed on the foreign western ideas.
Claiming the Chinese as an example of meritocracy is a bit of a stretch. They are a command economy with harbor freight tools.
You do realize you didn’t edit out the guest’s home phone number?