Posted on 03/17/2019 4:37:22 AM PDT by vannrox
Aye, socialism. That’s the ticket; screw merit..
Condescending, stupid and arrogant article. Meritocracy exists even for assembly line and service jobs. It’s particularly true for any work requiring analytical thinking and skilled resolution.
He’s writing to disgruntled Millennial socialists who wonder why their peers are getting ahead. He’s telling them it’s not from hard work but a rigged system. Feeding the hate and envy socialism requires.
“writes about political theory, psychology, and other lifestyle-related topics”
A worthless profession if there ever was one. No wonder he lambast meritocracy. He couldn’t climb up the ladder on his own merits, so he blames others with having luck for their success. Clifton Mark is a worthless loser.
My philosophy I learned from my father who was a miner. Never, ever let the guy next to you be able to say he worked harder than you did. You may need him to save your life some day.
It’ll be a much better world when mediocracy prevails.
Looking back from the 10,000 foot view over my 65 years, I have seen people succeed based on the merits of their own hard work. But I would say their percentage among all those I saw succeed or prosper is somewhere between 10 and 20 percent. Beware, especially, of those who claim all the credit for their success. Of those I personally know or knew others...family, friends, lovers and golfing partners and THEIR efforts on the braggart’s behalf, are unsung. In large part, it isn’t what you can accomplish on your own, but how well you are networked into the powers that be.
So, who says you can’t believe in both meritocracy AND luck? If you’re lucky enough to be in the right at the right time does not mean that you have the “merit” to take advantage of it. This guy is a socialist dream, Oh never mind no-one has a chance unless the government gives it ti him. Bull$hit.
There’s a big difference between Walt Williams’s observation that simply finishing high school, holding any kind of job and marrying before you have children puts the odds overwhelmingly in your favor for having a decent life —
And somehow magically thinking that elites don’t succeed in giving their children a leg up in the accumulation of material comfort, influence and accolades.
All depends on your definition of success.
Preparation + Opportunity = Luck
The harder I worked, the luckier I got.
But what the author doesn't seem to realize that it is still better than every other system yet devised by Man.
Regards,
Did you forget the [barf] tag?
The devil was the original Communist Liberal Elite, who thought it was his right (not as one in need of mercy and grace) to sit in glory and power (Isaiah 14:14) and presumed to “climb up some other way” (John 10:1) than that which is ordained of God (by mercy avoiding what one deserves, and under grace receiving what one does not deserve, and also rewarding obedience, which God motivates and enables, whereby overcomers will sit with Christ in His throne, Revelation 3:21, which promotion the devil arrogantly presumed).
And being abased for his self-exaltation in the original “Occupy Movement,” he proceeded to work to seduce Eve with the psychology of the original victim-entitlement mentality, and its “share the wealth” demand, presenting God as maliciously selfishly keeping Eve away from Divine power which was rightfully hers. Thus her rebellion to obtain what was withheld seemed be just, while the devil, who presented himself as her savior, obtained power by her “vote,” becoming the “god of this world.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
And ever since then he was sought to enlarge his kingdom and rob God of glory and gain it for himself in an alternative world, with perverse corruptions of what God ordained, even marriage and Christ and the gospel, and which world he works to accomplish thru his proxy servants. Who likewise typically seduce souls with the victim-entitlement mentality, though they typically have actual injustices to work with, but which are used to obtain power by the proxy servants of satan, whether it be Stalin or lesser devils, and who end up being the only ones who having all that they worked souls be envious of.
Yet even many liberals can have their “day of salvation” (1Co. 6:2) in which they come to God as convicted, guilty, damned and destitute but penitent sinners, and cast all their faith upon the risen Lord Jesus to save them on His account, by His sinless shed blood, who died for them and rose again. And thus who are baptized and live that faith out. (Romans 3:23–5:1; Acts 10:43–47; 15:7–9)
The author prefers preference given to factors of birth.
Affirmative Action is an example of preference given to a circumstance of birth. So is the preference given to children of the new aristocracy (Party members) in Communist states.
So many things wrong with this article. It’s clear to me that the author didn’t get where he is on merit.
1. He holds up Bill Gates as the example. “There are certainly programmers nearly as skilful as Gates”. Hahahaha! There are many, many programmers FAR more skillful than Gates.
2. Gates got where he is because of connections. And theft of intellectual property. And a few other factors I won’t go into here.
3. Just because you didn’t become Bill Gates doesn’t mean you aren’t successful. In general, barring nepotism/connections and serious personality defects, there is a pretty strong correlation between talent+hard work and success.
4. “Luck” is used by many of those with connections to explain their success and to hide the dirty secrets that got them there.
5. The Ultimatum Game. Interesting, but so much more complex than reported here. When played in different cultures, the strategies can be drastically different. (I’ve noticed that when social “scientists” report on results of experiments like this, their biases are blatant. They design experiments to prove their desired results and then interpret them accordingly. There is so much they fail to consider because it is simply outside the realm of their expected/desired results.)
Successful people tend to make a lot of luck.
“In competitive contexts, many have merit, but few succeed. What separates the two is luck.”
To be good AND lucky is better than just being good
“”Despite the moral assurance and personal flattery that meritocracy offers to the successful, it ought to be abandoned both as a belief about how the world works and as a general social ideal. “
So meritocracy ought to be abandoned in favor of what??
The author is an imbecile who obviously trying to rationalize his own lack of success. People who sit in their mother’s basement smoking dope all day have all sorts of excuses for why the guy next door who worked 2 jobs, studied all night and worked his way to the top was “luckier” than his sorry azz.
Good post!
I thought the ideal was a “level” playing field, not an “even” playing field.
The author wrote it twice so it seems to be what he meant.
Canadian English perhaps?
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