One of the things I'm discovering from my various researches is that
"meritocracy" means different things to different people in different
situations, and needs to be contextualized. Laura's point substantiates
that.
The meritocracy of the ancient Greeks (actually the ancient Athenians) was
a concept embedded in their view of democracy, but that community was
indeed restricted to adult males. That universe of members ("citizens")
promoted ideas and power to those most deserving in the judgment of the
political community--not people privileged by historical royal birth. That
was the democratic revolution then.
So, yes, it was a--limited-- meritocracy--but we need to understand more
generally that meritocracy as a concept depends on the assumption of "who
is a member" of the community that is judging privilege on the basis of
members' merit. Meritocracy is not a synonym, in my view, for social
justice writ large, or simply a proxy to explain the rights of someone
currently at odds with any particular regime of authority.
On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 9:03 AM, Laura Hilliger <[email protected]>
wrote:
> I don’t subscribe, but I’d love to talk more about “meritocracy" anyway :)
>
> Last month while I was in NYC, I got into a fairly heated discussion with
> a Columbia professor. I was quite flustered. Although, I have pointed out
> diversity and inclusion issues in Meritocracies, I’d always been a believer
> in the ideal. A friend of mine said "Etymology isn't destiny”, which sums
> up my side of the argument.
>
> But this particular word, for which I cannot find a synonym, has started a
> bit of a flame war here in the space between social justice and technology.
>
> The term “meritocracy”, as much as we strive for the theoretical ideal, is
> quite problematic. Michael Young coined it in 1958 (is this true?), but it
> was meant as a dystopian warning:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Meritocracy
>
> When I spoke with Brook Manville a while back, he said that the Ancient
> Greeks used this system. What I didn’t consider at the time, however, is
> that in ancient Greece there were slaves and, of course, women. Neither of
> these groups could benefit from Greek meritocracy, so it wasn’t *really* a
> meritocracy.
>
> And this article briefly covers some of the key issues, particularly in
> tech.
> http://readwrite.com/2014/01/24/github-meritocracy-rug/
>
> I guess some of the questions are – can the Open Movement reclaim the word
> “meritocracy”? Should we even try? Is it tainted? How can we explain the
> difference between “our” meritocracies and the pervasive myths that people
> call "meritocracies”?
>
> —laura
>
> Laura Hilliger
> [email protected]
> www.zythepsary.com
> @epilepticrabbit <http://twitter.com/#!/epilepticrabbit>
>
> On Jul 12, 2016, at 7:09 PM, Bryan Behrenshausen <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Anyone else here subscribe to _The Hedgehog Review_? This month's issue
> is on "Meritocracy and its Discontents," and seems like it would be of
> great interest to many on the list. I've just begun reading it but would
> love to talk more about the articles with anyone else who's gotten hold
> of them.
>
> http://www.iasc-culture.org/THR/index.php
>
> Bryan
>
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--
*Brook Manville*
*Principal, Brook Manville LLC*
*http://www.brookmanville.com/ <http://www.brookmanville.com/>*
*Twitter* <https://twitter.com/>
*@brookmanville*
*blogging at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brookmanville/
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/brookmanville/>*
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