3 ms·

What does conformity have to do with meritocracy? They seem orthogonal.

• lostlogin 9y ago
  And how measure a societies level of either. Few would disagree that conformity was stronger in Japan than the US, but it’s got to be hard to measure.
• alexbeloi 9y ago
  Stability is a more appropriate term. Japanese culture values stability very highly. People in this thread believe this kind of stability results in low economic mobility. In the US, people associate high economic mobility with meritocracy. There's a couple leaps to be made in both associations, but I think that's what the gist is.
• ars 9y ago
  You have to conform to the "life plan" of your station, what your parents expect, what they raise you to, what your peers (from a similar background) are doing. From the wiki: "prefer the continuation of a harmonious community over their personal interests". That's directly opposed to meritocracy.