As I'm looking into the concept of meritocracy, I'm beginning to think that maybe meritocracy is being abused to justify the existence of positions of privilege.
Take academic tenure, for instance. People who achieved academic excellence are rewarded with a life-long position with guaranteed salary extracted from tax-payers. One could argue that this is not a privilege as such position was "earned", thus "merited" or "deserved", but one could also argue that it still is a privilege in the sense that it's the right to extract money from people without their consent. An earned privilege is still a privilege. This, to me, seems wrong. Just because you've proven you're smart or talented shouldn't grant you the right to impose your will on others for ever. Intelligent people should actually use their intelligence to produce knowledge or achieve great things, not use it as a card that would grant them special treatments.
It becomes increasingly clear to me that many positions of power or even just comfort in the world are like that : being a government employee in many countries is seen as a way to ensure professional stability and thus social success.
I suspect this is what the World order is truly fighting for : the right for smart, talented or educated people to enslave the others.
Criticism of meritocracy apparently exists. In fact, if I understand correctly the word itself was initially aimed to be derogative, in the satirical book "the rise of meritocracy".
en.wikipedia.org
I'll definitely have to read that book someday. Also a quick search on say YouTube points to more modern critics of the concept.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLEvJUNfyBY
I guess I'll have to check this out, too.
Take academic tenure, for instance. People who achieved academic excellence are rewarded with a life-long position with guaranteed salary extracted from tax-payers. One could argue that this is not a privilege as such position was "earned", thus "merited" or "deserved", but one could also argue that it still is a privilege in the sense that it's the right to extract money from people without their consent. An earned privilege is still a privilege. This, to me, seems wrong. Just because you've proven you're smart or talented shouldn't grant you the right to impose your will on others for ever. Intelligent people should actually use their intelligence to produce knowledge or achieve great things, not use it as a card that would grant them special treatments.
It becomes increasingly clear to me that many positions of power or even just comfort in the world are like that : being a government employee in many countries is seen as a way to ensure professional stability and thus social success.
I suspect this is what the World order is truly fighting for : the right for smart, talented or educated people to enslave the others.
Criticism of meritocracy apparently exists. In fact, if I understand correctly the word itself was initially aimed to be derogative, in the satirical book "the rise of meritocracy".
The Rise of the Meritocracy - Wikipedia
I'll definitely have to read that book someday. Also a quick search on say YouTube points to more modern critics of the concept.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLEvJUNfyBY
I guess I'll have to check this out, too.
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