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A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you
Princeton University ^ | June 22, 2020 | Clifton Mark

Posted on 06/01/2021 7:40:37 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica

Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life—money, power, jobs, university admission—should be distributed according to skill and effort. The most common metaphor is the ‘even playing field’ upon which players can rise to the position that fits their merit. Conceptually and morally, meritocracy is presented as the opposite of systems such as hereditary aristocracy, in which one’s social position is determined by the lottery of birth. Under meritocracy, wealth and advantage are merit’s rightful compensation, not the fortuitous windfall of external events.

Most people don’t just think the world should be run meritocratically, they think it is meritocratic. In the UK, 84 per cent of respondents to the 2009 British Social Attitudes survey stated that hard work is either ‘essential’ or ‘very important’ when it comes to getting ahead, and in 2016 the Brookings Institute found that 69 per cent of Americans believe that people are rewarded for intelligence and skill. Respondents in both countries believe that external factors, such as luck and coming from a wealthy family, are much less important. While these ideas are most pronounced in these two countries, they are popular across the globe.

Although widely held, the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure in the world is demonstrably false. This is not least because merit itself is, in large part, the result of luck. Talent and the capacity for determined effort, sometimes called ‘grit’, depend a great deal on one’s genetic endowments and upbringing.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: blackkk; luck; lucky; merit; meritocracy; redistribution; reparations; whitesupremacy
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To: Red Badger

Effectively producing a kakistocracy.


21 posted on 06/01/2021 7:52:06 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind

Work flows to the competent.

Never exhibit great competency doing work you don’t like to do.


22 posted on 06/01/2021 7:52:24 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: SaxxonWoods

After being on the “management track” for several years and only seeing more non-doers and minorities promoted, I am looking elsewhere.


23 posted on 06/01/2021 7:53:35 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: coloradan

“...GUI to market after being shown one at Apple,...foolish of Steve Jobs to have shown it to Gates ...Gates has the business ethics of a hyena ...”

Actually so did Jobs, he stole the GUI from PARC XEROX !


24 posted on 06/01/2021 7:53:40 AM PDT by Reily
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To: Freee-dame
Perhaps Princeton should stop requiring applications and just accept students chosen at random from 12th graders across the country. Then we shall see how the education at Princeton, supposedly superior, will work out.

Parents want to send their kids to "elite" universities, because of the perception that graduates of these places do very well.

The reality is that they do very well because the elite colleges are (or were) very selective, only admitting the smartest and hardest-working.

An elite university that stops admitting the smartest, most driven applicant, will descend into mediocrity.

25 posted on 06/01/2021 7:54:33 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
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To: ConservativeMind

I have faced this myself also. You are not supposed to make yourself look good, you are are supposed to make them look good.

And not only management... But from fellow employees if you come in and make them look bad with your work ethics and productivity. Because it forces them to do the same and most just want to do only the bare minimum to keep the position.


26 posted on 06/01/2021 7:54:56 AM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: coloradan

What the Airforce calls fly and fix, get a plane out and them make it work, Gates helped to introduce to programming as well, spending money others had been on better code on more advertising.


27 posted on 06/01/2021 7:55:07 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: ConservativeMind

Idiocracy.................


28 posted on 06/01/2021 7:55:32 AM PDT by Red Badger (Jesus said there is no marriage in Heaven. That's why they call it Heaven.....................)
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To: Rurudyne

Strange that’s even there. Leftists are notoriously uncharitable.


29 posted on 06/01/2021 7:55:43 AM PDT by afsnco (18 of 20 in AF JAG)
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To: Red Badger

There is a Peter Principle workaround.

All you have to do is know where your level of incompetence is and diligently work to avoid promotion to that level.

Over the decades I’ve known scores of excellent engineers who became crappy managers.

I’ve studiously avoided management...


30 posted on 06/01/2021 7:56:42 AM PDT by null and void (When you put bad people in charge expect bad things to happen, often in a spectacular and sudden way)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

i guess that’s how cliff got his job...


31 posted on 06/01/2021 7:57:15 AM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. P144:1)
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To: ConservativeMind

At my company they promote the best so that the best spend all their time managing schedules and budgets which are ever-expanding due to having to fix all the mistakes made by the incompetents remaining at the bottom of the food chain.


32 posted on 06/01/2021 7:57:30 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
For example, starting at Princeton, we need to abolish tenure, even before we get started on Guaranteed Basic Income and Reparations.

33 posted on 06/01/2021 8:00:43 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: ConservativeMind

That has been the way of the world since time began.

People climb the ladder then cut off the rungs beneath them.

I get it. Some of my mentorees were promoted above me. I took it as a compliment. However, I was also “frozen out” very quickly for two reasons.
1. They had no one to replace me with
2. I was a threat. The two I trained who made it up were competent and hard working. That is a direct threat to those who are not.

Promotions are as much about the social aspect as the merit. Something I wish I was taught early on.

Now, it is about what color of skin you have and where you pee. Which is a nice way of protecting those on the top from being challenged.


34 posted on 06/01/2021 8:01:00 AM PDT by redgolum (If this is civilization, I will be the barbarian. )
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To: ProgressingAmerica; Fred Nerks

Whoop dee do.

The solution?

Why Eureka....the solution is SOCIALISM.

Everybody gets the same.( Bunghole the Merit.)

This is Utopian in the extreme.

Merit is whaty oit is all about, wheter ganed via work or luck.

Thats the way karma ( the law of causation and dependent origination) works.

No Socialism or body politic can change the role of merit.Its like the law of gravity. Unavoidable.

https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-buddhism/path-to-enlightenment/karma-rebirth/merit-does-happiness-need-to-be-earned


35 posted on 06/01/2021 8:01:48 AM PDT by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html) )
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To: PapaBear3625

In a few generations, maybe.

When I worked for Koch, there was a clear anti Ivy directive.

That Harvard MBA will cost more and do less than the guy from Wichita.

Same in engineering.

However, they do come with connections. Sometimes that is what is being bought.


36 posted on 06/01/2021 8:04:18 AM PDT by redgolum (If this is civilization, I will be the barbarian. )
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To: Freee-dame

It is easy for them. Liberal = good. Everything else bad. Nothing else need be considered.


37 posted on 06/01/2021 8:05:00 AM PDT by rbg81 (Truth is stranger than fiction)
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To: ProgressingAmerica
Princeton? Figures ... what a colossal waste of money and time!

You spend a freakin’ fortune on tuition and books only to have them theach you failure, excuses and mediocracy, instead of possibilities and potentials realized.

Find a better place to feed your mind and your spirit real food, instead of that over-priced, soul cancer inducing, mental junk food they’re dishing out.

As a man thinks, so he goes.

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Belief becomes reality, so think better thoughts.

An AA degree from a community college is a far better practical investment than the overpriced 4-year socialist mind meld you’d finance with student loans from a university.

38 posted on 06/01/2021 8:07:17 AM PDT by GBA (Endeavor to persevere)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

Luck: Recognizing and seizing oportunities as they arise, not wallowing in self pity.


39 posted on 06/01/2021 8:08:03 AM PDT by seowulf
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To: ProgressingAmerica
What is the mature, grammatically acceptable word for;

"It's not who you know but who you blow"

?

40 posted on 06/01/2021 8:09:02 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true, I have no proof, but they're true !)
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