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posted by
n1
on Saturday June 18 2016, @06:20AM
from the in-my-day-we-called-it-social-darwinism dept.
from the in-my-day-we-called-it-social-darwinism dept.
When Michael Young, a British sociologist, coined the term meritocracy in 1958, it was in a dystopian satire. At the time, the world he imagined, in which intelligence fully determined who thrived and who languished, was understood to be predatory, pathological, far-fetched.
Today, however, we’ve almost finished installing such a system, and we have embraced the idea of a meritocracy with few reservations, even treating it as virtuous. That can’t be right. Smart people should feel entitled to make the most of their gift. But they should not reshape society so as to instate giftedness as a universal yardstick of human worth.
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When the Term Meritocracy was Coined in 1958, it was in a Dystopian Satire
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I'm wearing PAMPERS!!
(Score: 2) by Mr Big in the Pants on Sunday June 19 2016, @05:14AM
Dude. Popularity != merit in a race to run the country. Maybe to win an acting award or some such.
Merit:
- the quality of being particularly good or worthy, especially so as to deserve praise or reward.
How does this describe Trump? The guy is popular because he insults people and says bigoted things, not because he is good or worthy at the role of being president. Trump is a distraction in this discussion.
And also, the president does not make all the decisions...the wealthy do.
It is sad you think so...but feel free.
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Sunday June 19 2016, @12:07PM
How else are you supposed to run an interview where every single citizen gets a vote on who merits the job the most? No system lets you perfectly measure the merits of all applicants, and this only gets harder to do when you increase the number of interviewers to several million or more.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mr Big in the Pants on Sunday June 19 2016, @11:21PM
Good question.
I believe (according to my mother's tales of yore) switzerland used to (still?) have a system whereby the positions such as finance minister were selected from those considered leaders in their field rather than just whatever politician won the popularity contest. I only remember this vaguely so take it with a grain of salt. I do know they have a VERY direct democracy (in other words approximating a TRUE democracy, not the current shame most countries have) with voting on important bills happening several times a years.
Ideas off the top of my head for such systems which may or may not work but still answer the question:
- Independent body with safeguards tasked to review candidates for portfolio positions based on experience and expertise. If one is not cynical and defeatist one could imagine any number of scenarios, restrictions and safeguards to avoid corruption. Many countries use such systems for high level public servants already. Popularist politicians still exist and can debate, vote etc.
- Candidates selected by the public but strictly based on their work and public service record with a shortlist of candidates selected as above. No vapid campaigning allowed, only substantial debates and interviews.
That is all that is on the top of my head in these minutes. The possible implementations of the above could be endless and there are many hybrids.
I am sure there could be much discussion on how viable such systems could be, what their flaws are and the parrots will repeat their old mantras about the current system being better than all the others etc etc.
Nevertheless it answers your question.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 22 2016, @02:12PM
popularity might not be the kind of merit you want in the 'leaders of the country', but it's still a kind of merit
as it stands the race for office is based on popularity-based merit
so it _is_ a meritocracy, just not the right kind
as a sidenote, it's a very rare politician that actually leads as opposed to ruling or managing