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> Let uber geniuses run the nation's courts, monetary policy, tax laws, environmental protection programs, and defense planning and acquisition We literally al

> Let uber geniuses run the nation's courts, monetary policy, tax laws, environmental protection programs, and defense planning and acquisition We literally already let elite school grads do this and where has it gotten us? 40 years of a yawning gap between the cosmopolitan dream-hoarder class and the rest of us fighting for scraps?

LudwigNagasena 5y ago
You mean elite schools with legacy admissions and affirmative action policies? Yeah, it lead the US to a yawning gap. Make college funding conditional on transparent admission based on standardized testing and things will get better.
javajosh 5y ago
Intelligence only matters to a certain point for good administrators. Morality, courage, and, above all, self-restraint are just as important. These are the people capable of changing the rules in a way that benefits others even if it means a slight drop in personal wealth, power, or prestige. Often we seem to pick those who are constitutionally incapable of doing that, much to our detriment. (One big reason is that egoists can be wealthy, and wealth can manufacture consent, but that's a discussion for another time.) George Washington could have been a King, and declined. Whatever other skeletons he had in his closet, that decision puts him very high in my book, and is a fantastic example of our American value of both innovation and civic-minded self-restraint.
- celticninja 5y ago
  >civic-minded self-restraint. Such a well know American characteristic you needed a 22nd amendment.
  - javajosh 5y ago
    That we have strayed from the virtue of self-restraint is beyond all doubt, root and vine. Our consumerist, ignorant population and our egoist, shameless leadership proves it. That doesn't mean its not a virtue that we once cared deeply about, and or that it wasn't definitional. And it doesn't mean we won't start caring about it again. I'd like to think that its in our DNA, just recessive right now. The elite schools are populated by smart people who are well on their way to mastering the rules of the game, like their parents did (speaking broadly), but in general they aren't interested at all in changing the rules for the betterment of the broader society. I'm generalizing, but it's basically true. (There may be some idealistic instinct in college; but that quickly evaporates when the hard choices must be made that impact your families income and safety within society.) How many lawyers build a successful career on mastering the corrupt rules vs how many build a career speaking truth to power and calling out the corruption? Reforming a corrupt system, succeed or fail, will destroy you and everything you love, and these days you won't even get the paltry victory of public esteem. It's worse: half of our public will take the system's side, insofar as they even know about it, because the system can afford great PR and produces endless distraction.)
  - adolph 5y ago
    Value != trait If anything a value is something honored because the breech is more common, valued in part due to scarcity.

LudwigNagasena 5y ago

You mean elite schools with legacy admissions and affirmative action policies? Yeah, it lead the US to a yawning gap. Make college funding conditional on transparent admission based on standardized testing and things will get better.

javajosh 5y ago

Intelligence only matters to a certain point for good administrators. Morality, courage, and, above all, self-restraint are just as important. These are the people capable of changing the rules in a way that benefits others even if it means a slight drop in personal wealth, power, or prestige. Often we seem to pick those who are constitutionally incapable of doing that, much to our detriment. (One big reason is that egoists can be wealthy, and wealth can manufacture consent, but that's a discussion for another time.) George Washington could have been a King, and declined. Whatever other skeletons he had in his closet, that decision puts him very high in my book, and is a fantastic example of our American value of both innovation and civic-minded self-restraint.

celticninja 5y ago
>civic-minded self-restraint. Such a well know American characteristic you needed a 22nd amendment.
- javajosh 5y ago
  That we have strayed from the virtue of self-restraint is beyond all doubt, root and vine. Our consumerist, ignorant population and our egoist, shameless leadership proves it. That doesn't mean its not a virtue that we once cared deeply about, and or that it wasn't definitional. And it doesn't mean we won't start caring about it again. I'd like to think that its in our DNA, just recessive right now. The elite schools are populated by smart people who are well on their way to mastering the rules of the game, like their parents did (speaking broadly), but in general they aren't interested at all in changing the rules for the betterment of the broader society. I'm generalizing, but it's basically true. (There may be some idealistic instinct in college; but that quickly evaporates when the hard choices must be made that impact your families income and safety within society.) How many lawyers build a successful career on mastering the corrupt rules vs how many build a career speaking truth to power and calling out the corruption? Reforming a corrupt system, succeed or fail, will destroy you and everything you love, and these days you won't even get the paltry victory of public esteem. It's worse: half of our public will take the system's side, insofar as they even know about it, because the system can afford great PR and produces endless distraction.)
- adolph 5y ago
  Value != trait If anything a value is something honored because the breech is more common, valued in part due to scarcity.