
Quantifying the Meritocratic Delusion - trekkie
https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/23/visionary-art/#meritocratic-delusion
======
zeveb
> At its core, "meritocracy" is eugenics: the belief that some people are just
> intrinsically better than others (that's why you often hear plutocrats
> boasting of their "good blood" – think of Trump here).

> As with all eugenics stories, meritocracy is trivially disprovable
> pseudoscientific nonsense.

Eugenics is not nonsense; it is immoral. It is possible to selectively breed
animals for desirable traits; a monstrous regime could do the same thing for
men. That something would be evil to do does not make it impossible.

Given that mankind has employed selective breeding for literally millennia, on
both plants and animals, the burden of proof has to rest on those who claim
that it cannot (rather than _may_ not) be effective on men.

And it is trivially obvious that some people _are_ intrinsically better than
others: look at any professional sports team. Or any chess player. Or any
artist. Yes, all of those folks have spent hours in honing their natural
talents — but they had natural talents to begin with.

