The Decline of Merit as a Measurement of Value-Sydney Williams
http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com
In the first half of the 20th Century (and earlier), through the early 1950s, wealth and social class were more important determinants than merit, in terms of college acceptance, employment gained, and wealth accumulated. White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant men were favored. Appropriately, attitudes changed in the post-War years, with merit playing a bigger role. Colleges and employers looked more at innate ability, personal drive, and willingness to work hard rather than family connections or schools attended. Race, gender and religious prejudices still applied, but that also began to change in the 1960s and ‘70s, with civil and women’s rights legislation, color-blind applications, and with many single-sex colleges going co-ed. Now we appear to have reverted to earlier times when, once again, identity – race, gender, ethnicity, and even sexual orientation – is valued above merit.
For colleges and universities, the use of merit – with SATs and ACTs as the standard measurements for educational potential – was an attempt to seek out the most qualified students, regardless of sex, race, or from whence they came. It is not a perfect system (no system is), but it has, at least, less bias than subjective measures. However, those exams now disproportionately favor Asians, so are deemed unfair, as they fail woke standards of diversity, inclusion and equity, standards which, by the way, exclude those with conservative political opinions and unsanctified cultural preferences.
Should merit alone be the standard for admitting a new student or hiring a new employee? Of course not. There are other valued traits: character, moral and common sense, integrity, diligence, loyalty. But, while many of those traits can be perceived through a subjective lens, the determination of merit is largely objective. It was almost sixty years ago that Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where he spoke of a time when his four little children “will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Six decades later, woke progressives insist that the color of one’s skin does matter. The implication being that blacks cannot compete without assistance from the state. It is false and demeaning.
The world is not equitable, as Harper Lee implied in the rubric above and as Voltaire’s Dr. Pangloss discovered; no matter how hard one searches perfection remains elusive. Nevertheless, we should always work at bettering our society, but we should do so while taking pride in our country and by building people up, not belittling them. How much more powerful would President Biden’s choice for the Supreme Court have reverberated throughout the land if he had said he would nominate the most qualified individual and then nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson, instead of first saying he would nominate a black woman? No matter her brilliance, she will be forever stigmatized as being selected – not for her legal expertise or her personal bona fides, but because she was a black woman.
The concept of meritocracy has come under attack in recent times. In a new book The Meritocracy Trap, Yale Law School professor Daniel Markovits, writes that meritocracy is simply “a pretense, constructed to rationalize an unjust distribution advantage.” Mac Margolis, a columnist for The Washington Post, suggests that merit has replaced the old system of inherited privilege…that it is, at least partly like the old system, class-based. Parents with money, education and connections cultivate in their children the habits that bring meritocratic rewards. While there is some truth to what they write, is a return to racism – even when formatted differently – the answer? Merit should be encouraged, not belittled. Regardless of wealth or social station, we should all strive to improve ourselves. As a nation, we should strive for unity, not division. Sadly, today there are legions who believe that identity politics is more important than merit when admitting a student to an elite college or welcoming an applicant to a high-profile job. The woke are comfortable being racist (though they will never admit it), so long as ends justify means.
It was merit that lifted man to the heights he has achieved, in terms of industry, scientific developments, and living standards. It was merit that formed our unique government in 1776. It was merit that has given us works of art, literature, music, and poetry. Man is not the “poor bare, forked animal” of King Lear’s imagination. Man is a human being, capable of thought and reason. He seeks opportunities because of the talents he possesses, so long as he has the freedom to express them and the legal framework to protect what he has produced. It was merit, not family connections, or racial or gender preferences, that saw – according to a 2018 Brookings Institute study – 44% of the Fortune 500 companies being founded or run by immigrants.
Merit, as I wrote earlier, should not be the sole basis for making judgments, but its importance should not be minimized. We want and need the best and the brightest to pursue and realize their dreams. Our future well-being depends on it.
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