Cultural Resources
Meritocracy / Rankism
Articles/Essays/Op-eds
What Is Rankism and Why Do We “Do” It? Robert W. Fuller Ph.D..
Rankism is an assertion of superiority. It typically takes the form of putting others down. It's what ‘somebodies’ do to people they think are ‘nobodies.’ It turns out that rankism is the source of most manmade suffering. So, if we could get rid of it, we would be a lot happier. Let me explain [. . .]”
How Ivy League Elites Turned Against Democracy, Stephen Marche.
“Some of the best-educated people in the country have overseen the destruction of their institutions…. What the Ivy League produces, in spades, on both the left and the right, is unwarranted confidence. Its institutions are hubris factories.... America’s less-educated and less-productive citizens drive anti-government patriotism, both in its armed and elected wings, but they mostly, despite themselves, pick their representatives from the ranks of the Ivy League and other similarly elite institutions around the country. Even in their rage against elites, the anti-elitists fall back on the deep structure of American power. [. . .]” (COMMENT: But why do they submit?)
"The Aristocracy of Talent" Review, James Marriott.
“Wooldridge calls for private schools to offer half their places to poorer students and advocates the creation of a “highly variegated” school system consisting of technical and art schools as well as academically selective ones. He also says we need a “moral revival” in our values to counteract our society’s obsessive celebration of intelligence. He points out that many members of the cognitive elite (such as bankers and journalists) are generally despised by the ordinary public, who revere the caring professions instead.”
Who Can Win America’s Politics of Humiliation?, Thomas L. Friedman.
"Trump or Biden?... many Trump supporters are not attracted to his policies. They’re attracted to his attitude — his willingness and evident delight in skewering the people they hate and who they feel look down on them."
Meritocracy on Trial, Win McCormack.
“It undermines equality and the common good.”
Books
The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?, Michael J. Sandel.
"Sandel argues that to overcome the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalization and rising inequality. Sandel shows the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind,..."
Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America's 50-Year Fall -- and Those Fighting To Reverse It, by Steven Brill.
Brill’s book is a critique of “meritocracy” and the “knowledge economy.” Brill argues that in recent decades we’ve had “liberal lawyers who were coming out of liberal law schools going to liberal law firms and doing the legal engineering” that caused many of the problems we face today.
According to Brill, those lawyers persuaded courts to establish legal precedents for how to fight unions and “promote arbitration clauses that are keeping the middle class out of the courts” when they have a job discrimination claim or a a consumer rights claim. One such lawyer was Ralph Nader, who fought for the right of discount drug stores to advertise their discount prices.
Nader now says, “That was the biggest boomerang of all time." Brill summarizes the effect:
The Supreme Court said, "The First Amendment is for listeners as well as it is for speakers. [. . .] We shouldn't discriminate on the basis of who the speaker is. So if the speaker happens to be a corporation, why should we care?"
That precedent led to the Citizens United case, which opened the floodgates to campaign spending. (see review)
Status Anxiety, Alain de Botton.
“This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we’re judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser. This is a book about status anxiety.
We care about our status for a simple reason: because most people tend to be nice to us according to the amount of status we have (it is no coincidence that the first question we tend to be asked by new acquaintances is ‘ What do you do?’). With the help of philosophers, artists and writers, the book examines the origins of status anxiety (ranging from the consequences of the French Revolution to our secret dismay at the success of our friends), before revealing ingenious ways in which people have learnt to overcome their worries in their search for happiness. It aims not only to be entertaining, but wise and helpful as well.”