Thursday, April 11, 2019
Pretty good article
A pretty good article on meritocracy by Clifton Mark.
Main point:
This is surprising because impartiality is the core of meritocracy’s moral appeal. The ‘even playing field’ is intended to avoid unfair inequalities based on gender, race and the like. Yet Castilla and Benard found that, ironically, attempts to implement meritocracy leads to just the kinds of inequalities that it aims to eliminate. They suggest that this ‘paradox of meritocracy’ occurs because explicitly adopting meritocracy as a value convinces subjects of their own moral bona fides. Satisfied that they are just, they become less inclined to examine their own behaviour for signs of prejudice.It's not a paradox. Meritocracy was INVENTED by aristocrats to defend their own position in the Luddite conflict around 1700. Locke was a 'personal physician' in the household of various aristocrats, basically a 'life coach' in modern terms. His philosophy followed his paycheck. The official enshrinement of meritocracy by the 1776ers served the same purpose. Their job was to keep NYC finance and northern sweatshop slavery in power, and to eliminate all other economic and political forces. The older Natural Law view was best expressed in Sharia. Quoting again:
The Almighty has created this world as a trial and test for man; every person has therefore been made to depend on others for his living. No one in this world can live independently as regards his needs and requirements. A person of the highest rank turns to the most ordinary to fulfill them. In other words, every single person has an important role to play, without which this world cannot continue. This role depends upon his abilities, intelligence and inclinations as well as upon his means and resources, which vary from person to person. In fact, it is because of this variation that a society comes into being. Consequently, laborers and workers, artisans and craftsmen, tillers and peasants are as indispensable as scholars and thinkers, savants and sages, leaders and rulers. Every individual is an integral component of the society and contributes to its formation according to his abilities. By creating various classes of people, the Almighty is testing whether the big and the small, the high and the low create a society based on co-operation and respect or create disorder in the world by disregarding the role each person has been ordained to play.Focus on: This role depends upon his abilities, intelligence and inclinations as well as upon his means and resources, All of these are predetermined. Abilities, intelligence and inclinations are genetically predetermined; means and resources, what we call 'luck', are externally predetermined. Let's look at GW Carver. Genes gave him a rare combination of talent and passion and mental stamina. But without the 'luck' of being born in 1865 in the household of Moses and Sarah Carver, his genetic endowments would have been totally meaningless. Shortly after George was born, thieves kidnaped his mother. Moses ransomed the mother and child, but the thieves didn't return the mother. So Moses and Sarah raised George as their own child, even though he no longer had any economic value. They recognized that he was physically small and intellectually big. Instead of putting him to work in the fields, they taught him to read and placed him in charge of the kitchen garden, where he immediately started improving the plant breeds by hybridizing and crossing. His unique talent met a uniquely perfect situation. Moses and Sarah passed the Almighty's test, and deserve special credit.
Labels: Carver, From rights to duties, Natural law = Sharia law
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