Egalitarian Meritocracy

April 17th, 2008 at 01:44pm Edward Troy 191

What the heck is this? I brought it up about a month ago. Some have defend the concept and clearly embrace the idea without reservation. I seek to address those who would not see this as an ideal.

Certainly we are Smiths and Joneses and we are also assigned blackness and whiteness, men and women, old and young. Credit your parents, for you have done nothing to get these labels.

In the not too distant past some people were able to get a special social status -- a social entitlement. This is still true but to a lessor degree. John Stuart Mill concluded in On the Subjugation of Women that no country will be able to ignore the intellectual contributions of women and remain competitive. A cursory examination of such places where women are under subjugation and oppressed reveals a shocking backwardness and lack of competitiveness in value added products, many are in the Middle East.

Extrapolating this to the human condition, especially in recent history, shows that wherever subjugation happens and I go further to include oppression by demographic set, a lack of competitiveness exists. Our South is still recovering from slavery and Jim Crow, and our nation is still hobbled by the legacy of barrios, ghettoes and reservations.

Should anyone be a victim of their birth? Not in a civil government of the people by the people and for the people.

Should government allow oppression? Not if there are expectations of contributing to the moral fiber of a social contract.

If life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are worthy of Our Declaration of Independence, are not we worthy of access to betterment? We are, unless those are words that ring of falsehoods.

It is easy to compromise potential for political expediency. Look around you.

Can responsibility be defined as making sure some people can't contribute through systematic social, legal and financial means, when faced with a dire economic need to compete with the ascendant might of other countries? Surely then in the competitive global economy, impediments to meritorious contributions must be considered anathema to American success. We simply cannot fail by not giving everyone access to being the best they can be and then having them succeed at their highest level of excellence and vocation, not mere competence.

Adam Smith's world ruthlessly eliminates inefficiencies, just as the modern incarnation of Confucianism elevates abilities. There are countries combining the two. Woe unto us if we do not do the same.

Entry Filed under: Aspen