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What does the last sentence mean, exactly? The word meritocracy doesn't refer to an actual formalised class system, anywhere or in any time in history. This app
by repolfx 8y ago
What does the last sentence mean, exactly? The word meritocracy doesn't refer to an actual formalised class system, anywhere or in any time in history. This appears to a flawed attempt to seem balanced - meritocracy is good when it means appointing people based on merit (which is what it always means) and bad when it means this thing that doesn't actually exist.
Trying to ban the word meritocracy like they did at GitHub is just the result of certain sorts of people (who loudly claim to be totally not racist or sexist at all) secretly believing that formalised hiring and promotion processes, which is what they usually mean by the word meritocracy, will exclude their chosen favourite minorities.
- sonnyblarney 8y agoThe commenter points out that the cynicism towards the term 'meritocracy' is actually a part of the very birth of the term into the English language, which is a very good point. 'Meritocracy' possibly creates another class based system, just defined in the terms of whoever is responsible for defining what 'merit' is. I believe that in general 'meritocracy' is a good thing, I don't think we should be fundamentally cynical about it ... but the OP's comment is definitely relevant.
- arethuza 8y agoNote that I'm not cynical about the concept of meritocracy - just how the term is used.