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meritocracy is important
most of my life i’ve always cared immensely about merit. from a young age, when I read about Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan, I always felt like merit rose to the top. the story of Genghis Khan, Temujin the Outsider, and Jamukhah of nobility is the classic disruption story. a merit-oriented bottoms-up system can always outplay the accumulated advantage of a more traditional system.
until around 17, I started coming across the first “socialist-y” readings. I guess everyone goes through a leftist phase. systemic factors and getting lucky started becoming much more important in my mind. alexander stopped being “the great and brave general who led charges into battle” and became alexander, “the lucky heir who inherited a fighting force his father had already curated for him fighting against a poorly organized larger empire”
in the modern day - talking about the world being a meritocracy is almost a joke that no one believes in anymore. as if acknowledging systemic causes for problems means we can’t take credit for the agency we exercise every day.
i recently came across this tweet by austen quoting scott alexander (yea I know) about the point of ayn rand novels.
i don’t think this is a case of there being valid interpretations - or i understand the response for the category of people who detest ayn rand the same way i know the response of the racists or terrorists - with sad empathy i guess
it isn’t a valid interpretation to say that because there exists nepotism in the world, merit is something that should be put down
it isn’t valid for people who believe in merit over other things should feel like they need to hide it
Merit is good, actually. and unironically. you should take as much responsibility as you possibly can. and take responsibility for as many things that happen to you as possible
merit is important
Merit is Important
MERIT IS GOOD, AKSHUALLY