Post by NFA on Apr 14, 2021 20:50:20 GMT 8
Why Have Elites Abandoned Merit?
By Richard J. Shinder April 13, 2021
amgreatness.com/2021/04/13/why-have-elites-abandoned-merit/
By Richard J. Shinder April 13, 2021
amgreatness.com/2021/04/13/why-have-elites-abandoned-merit/
Surveying several recent news items, one could not be faulted for believing that the notion of merit has been significantly downgraded in American life.
...
As the cultural currency of classical liberalism and Enlightenment principles has receded, elites have abandoned merit.
Seeing the rising tide of merit now going out, they no longer fear waves of grubby and uncouth strivers—disagreeable, yes, but at least admiring of the elites’ status and rituals—but a pitchfork-wielding collectivist mob (even if that figurative mob primarily masses on Twitter).
The elites of yore first attempted to face down the strivers before failing and ultimately co-opting them; why have they been so quick to embrace the anti-merit hordes?
Two reasons.
First, our current elites, who constitute a rentier class frequently (and accurately—it’s one of the few things the progressives get right about American society) accused of “privilege,” have more in common with the collectivist vanguard than is usually understood.
Again, the Soviet experience is instructive: a society in which what matters is position rather than ability will create common cause between those benefiting from incumbency and those who can command the street, and synthesize a new elite standing above the lumpenproletariat on whose behalf they are presumed to act.
The other reason is that the elites actually believe this stuff.
The great and the good of contemporary American life are known neither for their courage, nor their critical thinking skills.
The long march of the Left through our institutions—the academy, media and entertainment, non-profit enterprises, government at all levels, and, more recently, the military and corporate America—marinated multiple generations of our elite classes in ideas largely at odds with markets, republicanism, civic virtue, the primacy of the individual, and a Western canon promoting classically liberal values.
Progress or Return?
In a sense, we’ve returned to the beginning—with an entrenched aristocracy seeking to suppress merit and protect its own position.
They are now allied with collectivists among the masses, and have formed a pincer movement against those who hold dear the old verities—individual responsibility, achievement through effort, a color-blind society, and the notion of fair play expressed in all its forms.
If you’re just a grubby striver, firm in your conviction that you deserve to succeed or fail based upon your own abilities and efforts, know well that elite institutions are now arrayed against you.
To pretend otherwise—individually or collectively—is to ignore reality.
...
...
As the cultural currency of classical liberalism and Enlightenment principles has receded, elites have abandoned merit.
Seeing the rising tide of merit now going out, they no longer fear waves of grubby and uncouth strivers—disagreeable, yes, but at least admiring of the elites’ status and rituals—but a pitchfork-wielding collectivist mob (even if that figurative mob primarily masses on Twitter).
The elites of yore first attempted to face down the strivers before failing and ultimately co-opting them; why have they been so quick to embrace the anti-merit hordes?
Two reasons.
First, our current elites, who constitute a rentier class frequently (and accurately—it’s one of the few things the progressives get right about American society) accused of “privilege,” have more in common with the collectivist vanguard than is usually understood.
Again, the Soviet experience is instructive: a society in which what matters is position rather than ability will create common cause between those benefiting from incumbency and those who can command the street, and synthesize a new elite standing above the lumpenproletariat on whose behalf they are presumed to act.
The other reason is that the elites actually believe this stuff.
The great and the good of contemporary American life are known neither for their courage, nor their critical thinking skills.
The long march of the Left through our institutions—the academy, media and entertainment, non-profit enterprises, government at all levels, and, more recently, the military and corporate America—marinated multiple generations of our elite classes in ideas largely at odds with markets, republicanism, civic virtue, the primacy of the individual, and a Western canon promoting classically liberal values.
Progress or Return?
In a sense, we’ve returned to the beginning—with an entrenched aristocracy seeking to suppress merit and protect its own position.
They are now allied with collectivists among the masses, and have formed a pincer movement against those who hold dear the old verities—individual responsibility, achievement through effort, a color-blind society, and the notion of fair play expressed in all its forms.
If you’re just a grubby striver, firm in your conviction that you deserve to succeed or fail based upon your own abilities and efforts, know well that elite institutions are now arrayed against you.
To pretend otherwise—individually or collectively—is to ignore reality.
...