I did misread the nepotism part - but he is mistaken about the pitfalls of a meritocratic society. While I do agree with his idea that the values of standardized, mass education that functions like a sieve are too narrow - and that being branded a failure too early can leave one unemployed for life. But on the whole that is becoming rarer, not more common. We - as well as Britain - have a system of public and private education that lasts until an individual is aged 18 - 22 years. We at least to some degree invest in our youths and give them many chances to succeed. And yes, it is far from perfect - but it is also still far from a true meritocracy, which functioning perfectly would find and cultivate talents from all individuals and allocate them to a task suited for them, and would give every student similar opportunities to discover and cultivate their own talents.
I just don't see what a better alternative to this perfect meritocracy would be. I don't see any alternative proposed. I don't see a better way to allocate labor. You choose people for positions that are well suited to those positions. How else would we have it? How else would we build/accomplish/organize anything?
A selection of one is a rejection of many. Likewise, choosing to fulfill a single duty means choosing not to perform all other duties. Should we do nothing? Should we hire no one? In the end I think this critique of meritocracy collapses to Marxism or some form of communitarianism - a nice idea in principle, but a failure in practice. To even remotely be able to accomplish the same kind of technological and societal progress that a true meritocracy is capable of you need to make decisions about who is and who isn't suited to particular functions.
So this seems like less a criticism of meritocracy than a criticism of the economic inequality that necessarily emerges in a society where individuals are different from each other.
Also, I somewhat disagree with the idea that a coiner of a term gets to decide its meaning in perpetuity. Language changes and terms get repurposed and given new connotations
I just don't see what a better alternative to this perfect meritocracy would be. I don't see any alternative proposed. I don't see a better way to allocate labor. You choose people for positions that are well suited to those positions. How else would we have it? How else would we build/accomplish/organize anything?
A selection of one is a rejection of many. Likewise, choosing to fulfill a single duty means choosing not to perform all other duties. Should we do nothing? Should we hire no one? In the end I think this critique of meritocracy collapses to Marxism or some form of communitarianism - a nice idea in principle, but a failure in practice. To even remotely be able to accomplish the same kind of technological and societal progress that a true meritocracy is capable of you need to make decisions about who is and who isn't suited to particular functions.
So this seems like less a criticism of meritocracy than a criticism of the economic inequality that necessarily emerges in a society where individuals are different from each other.
Also, I somewhat disagree with the idea that a coiner of a term gets to decide its meaning in perpetuity. Language changes and terms get repurposed and given new connotations