Meritocracy

First, go read THIS.

This is a comment I left on that blog. It turned long, and I'm reposting it here. Read. Enjoy. Tell me you love me. Tell me I'm full of crap.

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What we all need to do is start using the word "lucky". Hayes is right. As a left wing hippie liberal, these things have always seemed obvious to me. But I never really imagined they weren't obvious for everyone. We can change this.

I'm a teacher, and when you study education you learn about multiple intelligences (Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences). It's true, EVERYONE has some merit in some area. We have a problem in that we do not acknowledge that. Our children's "merit" is based on test scores. These tests are based on a very few areas of intelligence. The political landscape in America is desperate to find a cookie cutter solution to all the problems of education. This might be the Holy Grail of meritocracy, a simple test that determines a person's value. But like the Holy Grail, it is a myth. There will never be a cookie cutter solution, and even if there were, it would never be a multiple choice test.

But I'm an art teacher. I have students that could not do well on a standardized test to save their lives, but they draw pictures that could be museum-worthy. Unfortunately, a lot of them do not have the means or the ability to market that talent. In particular, I'm thinkng of two of my special education kids. Their lives are likely going to be difficult. People are going to judge them on their appearance and their speech before they ever get a chance to prove themselves. Even though they have merit, their merit is not likely to make them rich, or even self sufficient. The ladder will likely be pulled up on them before they ever even get a look at it simply because they were not fortunate enough to be born "normal".

In America, He Who Has/Makes the Most Money is "The Best". How many times have you heard a song on the radio, a really terrible, cheezy pop song, or some totally rehashed and uninspired rock ballad, and said "I really don't like this artist. His/her music kinda makes me want to hurl", and some jerk at the office will say "Yeah well, he's got a lot of money from making that music you hate". It's the same with people who just happen to be wealthy. Say, "Donald Trump is really annoying", and the same idiot will say "Yeah but he's rich", as if that meant anything. As if the fact that the person has made money automatically gives them merit, and there is something wrong with YOU for not agreeing and participating in the cult of wealth worship.

When this kind of discussion comes up, from now on, I will use the words "fortunate", and "lucky" in my reply. I believe the first step in addressing this is all about getting the idea into the collective consciousness. It's not an exact parallel, but if you look at the gay marriage issue, you can see what I am talking about. Support for gay marriage has flipped in a mere five years, simply because people started talking about it. When I was in college in the 90s, it wasn't that people didn't support gay marriage, it was just that talking about it was kind of like wishing pigs could fly. Nobody ever imagined it would happen in our lifetimes. Gay friends joked about going to the Netherlands to marry. People had committment ceremonies. Long term partners raised children, grew old, and died together believing that they had all that was or could ever be available to them as families. Now, equality seems that it will be a reality. The more people talk about it, and the longer we have it, the more people see that same sex marriage is not The End of the World.

If we talk about luck and fortune in relation to the meritocracy, it WILL seep into people's subconcious, and it WILL become part of the conversation. This is how we start. Get to it people!