Comments on: The Fall of the Meritocracy https://www.isegoria.net/2015/09/the-fall-of-the-meritocracy/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Thu, 30 Apr 2026 20:25:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: A Boy and His Dog https://www.isegoria.net/2015/09/the-fall-of-the-meritocracy/comment-page-1/#comment-2387380 A Boy and His Dog Sun, 13 Sep 2015 03:01:14 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=38847#comment-2387380 My SWPL acquaintances believe in both meritocracy and the blank slate. They blame low achievers for being too lazy to succeed in the meritocracy (“Why don’t they just study hard and go to Columbia University like I did?”), and simultaneously claim that if only the government spent a little more money on pie in the sky project XYZ, all of those people could be helped (forced?) to succeed. Their thinking is internally consistent and also wrong and somewhat evil.

BTW it’s worth noting that the plan outlined in this article won’t work. As much as the government would randomly try to increase IQ genetically amongst the plebeian class, the meritocrat class will be doing the same thing for their own kids with their own money *without fail*, building on the advantages they already have.

]]> By: Dave https://www.isegoria.net/2015/09/the-fall-of-the-meritocracy/comment-page-1/#comment-2386714 Dave Sat, 12 Sep 2015 04:39:08 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=38847#comment-2386714 Jim Donald said that in pre-war Vietnam, the aristocracy had an average IQ three standard deviations (45 points!) higher than the peasantry. Perhaps the process described by Michael Young actually happened there?

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