Re: meritocracy (was Re: Openness amplifies Inequality?)

Posted by Eric Charles-2 on Apr 22, 2014; 11:30pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Fwd-Major-bug-called-Heartbleed-exposes-Internet-data-tp7585135p7585287.html

Merle,
I'm not sure how that questions about "democracy" and questions about "meritocracy" are necessarily related. If I was to pick a historic example that most tried to do meritocracy, it would be imperial china, several hundred years ago. Certainly there was an elite class, but there was also incredible potential for social mobility because there were state run tests that allowed people to move into and to move up within the civil service. Of course such tests favored parents who could afford tutors, etc., but nobody cared because the function of tutors was to turn kids into more meritorious adults.

Nick,

I'm not sure we need too much ontological baggage to do the meritocracy game. What we do need is an agreement about the circumstances that we find ourselves in... once we get that, we just look for those who are best fit. ;- )

The biggest hindrance I see to the meritocracy game is that ultimately we will want people with a wide variety of merits (i.e., who exercise skills well-matched to a variety of circumstances). Of course, I know you agree with that (and have written about it at some point).

-----------
Eric P. Charles, Ph.D.
Lab Manager
Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning
American University, Hurst Hall Room 203A
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20016
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On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 5:38 PM, glen <[hidden email]> wrote:

On 04/22/2014 02:24 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote:

Has the list seen this?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy

A report coming out of the meritocracy, based on big data sets.  Makes the
conversation you're having kind of -- well, what cave do you dwell in?

Heh, there are many people that believe we never were a democracy to begin with.  To most other democracies, we seem to have been living in a cave for centuries.  Why buck tradition?

--
⇒⇐ glen

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