Don't disagree that what we have is not a meritocracy... which doesn't make what we do have anything other than what it is...
Meritocracy isn't a myth... its an ideal... I do understand your meaning, though, in suggesting that all hierarchical systems have as a first requirement for advancement... "go along to get along"... or "being good" rather than "recognize what we're doing wrong, fix it, and then improve it for us" ?
The whole point of corruption... is to keep things broken... not to improve efficiency ?
In the U.S. there's also a strong streak of anti-intellectualism entrained in the "club"... the guys running the club are not the sharpest tools in the shed... and many of them have good reason to be concerned about enabling others who might too easily recognize that.
But, oh, yeah... the Biden guys... what a great President they'd make... LOL!!!
Otherwise, the rest is exactly backwards... the plutocratic strategy advances "equal opportunity" as a means of engaging seekers and inducting them in the corruption, and then advances corruption as a good, along with those corrupted, and does not bother to enable its opposite...
The system we have is not "meritocracy"... but the system we do have will acknowledge innovation only when its enablement supports sustaining their authority.
What we have is a good ole boys club... and the first rule for admittance requires acceptance of the rest, that... we own you... you get only what we give you... etc.
When Obama made his "you didn't build that" speech ? He wasn't glorifying government as superior to the the innovator... or making any statement about government ? He was just saying... unless you agree to submit to our control up front... we won't allow you to succeed... It's a thugocracy... and in his statement he was not only admitting it... but overtly asserting the truth of it...
That doesn't the make the U.S. worse than anyone, or anywhere, else... It just makes the U.S. now mostly the SAME as everywhere else... which is what has us, first, failing in living up to our ideals...
The whole concept of American exceptionalism... is crafted around that idea that, yes, we ARE different... because we do adhere to our revolutionary ideals (some of us, some of the time... which is a whole lot more than others) and it is true that we used to be... much less of a thugocracy than we are now.
And, it isn't monolithic and permanent... cracks form... plaster falls... AT&T gets broken up... but then is allowed to come back together ? What a bad idea. Monopolies get taken apart... and then the next generation goes stupid and enables them, again... Ebbs and flows...imperfect... as history always is.
Also, it isn't that they won't acknowledge "an innovation"... it is that without the submission, they will not ever acknowledge the innovator ?
That Thomas Edison ? Great guy !!! Tesla ? Who the hell's that ? That Musk uses the name... is the final and ultimate irony and insult... taking from him now the only thing left that they hadn't taken away yet... |
