Comments on: If the process is meritocratic, it is a good idea to trust the people at the top https://www.isegoria.net/2021/09/if-the-process-is-meritocratic-it-is-a-good-idea-to-trust-the-people-at-the-top/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Mon, 20 Jul 2026 21:23:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Harry Jones https://www.isegoria.net/2021/09/if-the-process-is-meritocratic-it-is-a-good-idea-to-trust-the-people-at-the-top/comment-page-1/#comment-3428807 Harry Jones Mon, 06 Sep 2021 22:20:01 +0000 https://www.isegoria.net/?p=48188#comment-3428807 Be the meritocracy you want to see in the world. Autarchy is a state of mind, and a state of mind is (sometimes) a choice.

When our masters are incompetent at mastery, are we in fact mastered? Under the chaos of inept rule, the clever and willful man is a nation unto himself. Sovereignty by default. No need for any legal theory. Do what you can get away with has always been the only real law.

If you’re good enough at schmoozing, you may even get a spot in the next elite.

]]> By: VXXC https://www.isegoria.net/2021/09/if-the-process-is-meritocratic-it-is-a-good-idea-to-trust-the-people-at-the-top/comment-page-1/#comment-3428797 VXXC Mon, 06 Sep 2021 21:33:45 +0000 https://www.isegoria.net/?p=48188#comment-3428797 Well, since we see what we have at the top cannot be trusted, we can now utterly dispense with meritocracy.

]]> By: Gavin Longmuir https://www.isegoria.net/2021/09/if-the-process-is-meritocratic-it-is-a-good-idea-to-trust-the-people-at-the-top/comment-page-1/#comment-3428693 Gavin Longmuir Mon, 06 Sep 2021 13:45:18 +0000 https://www.isegoria.net/?p=48188#comment-3428693 “…macroeconomics in the 1980s, as Stanley Fischer all but monopolized the placement at prestige universities…”

Ah! The 1980s, when some universities had “prestige”. Since then, the denizens of those universities have lost all their prestige — except in their own eyes, of course.

The message, of course, is that trust has to be earned every day, and is so easily lost. Apart from the easily-led, no-one pays much attention to Brand Name prestige any more — an inevitable consequence of the Long March Through The Institutions.

]]> By: Harry Jones https://www.isegoria.net/2021/09/if-the-process-is-meritocratic-it-is-a-good-idea-to-trust-the-people-at-the-top/comment-page-1/#comment-3428664 Harry Jones Mon, 06 Sep 2021 11:27:56 +0000 https://www.isegoria.net/?p=48188#comment-3428664 “We have to trust other people in order to gain knowledge and to make decisions.”

Bullshit. What we have to trust is the evidence of our senses. Because other people are liars and fools.

Meritocracy begins with yourself.
Any trustworthy system begins with yourself. Have your own back. Do your own detecting. Build your own university, on your own Kindle.

Trust no signal except the signal of success. Observe the successful and do what they do. Not what they say, what they do.

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