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Merriam-Webster: >Meritocracy: a system, organization, or society in which people are chosen and moved into positions of success, power, and influence on the b
by djoldman 5y ago
Merriam-Webster:
>Meritocracy: a system, organization, or society in which people are chosen and moved into positions of success, power, and influence on the basis of their demonstrated abilities and merit [0]
It seems to me that Meritocracy is an unfortunately vague word. Given that, it's difficult to say much definitively about the US with respect to it. The American dream and the idea that if you work hard enough you can succeed are pretty wedded to the idea of Meritocracy.
The confounding factor is that it seems like one's constantly seeing successful, powerful, or influential people whose "demonstrated abilities and merit" are difficult to find.
[0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meritocracy https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meritocracy
- jaybrendansmith 5y agoYes. Matt's point is that we are in general selecting for intelligence and NOT true merit, e.g., honesty, integrity, bravery, and all of the traditional values. We seem to be selecting based on pure cleverness, and his point is that this alone creates quite a lot of success for people who are by most definitions terrible people. I don't see any issue with his argument, I believe he is on to something here. And because these intelligent but otherwise unprincipled people are raised up, they degrade the larger culture, the politics, and the economy for everyone.