Meritocracy Quotes

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
― H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe

“Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.”
― Derrick Bell, Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth

“Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal (...). There is a tendency (...) for certain people to use this phrase out of context, to satisfy all conditions. The most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious-because all men are created equal, educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority. We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe-some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others-some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“Self-actualization is what educated existence is all about. For members of the educated class, life is one long graduate school. When they die, God meets them at the gates of heaven, totes up how many fields of self-expression they have mastered, and then hands them a divine diploma and lets them in.”
― David Brooks, Bobos in Paradise

“Fransisco, you're some kind of very high nobility, aren't you?" He answered, "Not yet. The reason my family has lasted for such a long time is that none of us has ever been permitted to think he is born a d'Anconia. We are expected to become one.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“Even if you're total strangers, you can establish a connection by:

- Complimenting the person
- Finding some things you have in common
- Being nice and showing an interest in things they care about.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“One of the most effective ways there is of getting people to vote is by simply asking them to.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“One of the biggest reasons that people don’t vote is because they don’t see the point, so I can explain that the only way they can be heard is by casting a vote.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“A vote isn't just a piece of paper: it’s a person’s way of weighing in on who should be running the country, so not voting is the same as throwing away their say in the matter.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Voting shapes the future.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“A major argument against voting is that it makes no difference, and if that’s the case, let me explain that the person’s vote does make a difference.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Know your candidates. Know who they are and what party they are representing.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Don't vote based on what others are doing. Go with your gut and the knowledge you've gleaned from doing your research. Do listen to what others have to say––it is important to gauge what others feel and think but you must still reach an opinion based on what you know, think and feel is the right choice.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Ready to make your voice heard? Go and vote.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Go and vote.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“We talk about creating an utopia, but we install an empire and we build our success on the back of the exploited.

We talk about equality, but we ignore the power structures that silence the voices of the less powerful.

We talk about meritocracy, but we only promote and care for those from the core planets.

We talk about science and rationality, but we pray to extinct gods and worship mutated humans.”
― Maya Darjani, Ancient as the Stars: A Space Opera Adventure

“The person’s vote does make a difference.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice

“Don't vote for someone just because they're a part of a certain party. There have been many great leaders from the main parties, and their greatness has been based on their abilities/skills, their knowledge, their experience and their intellectual prowess. Don't let their title or party membership sway you. Look for someone who is capable, competent and responsible, who is willing to put people before power.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Base your voting process off your research.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Meritocracy as a societal construct is a travesty of the primitive human desire to compete.”
― Ismail Patel, A Modern Problem: A Collection of Poetry and Essays

“My dream is one world family, not one world government – my dream is a world where civilians bear the responsibility for the affairs of their society according to their capacity and expertise, not some halfwit political overlords. The mission is to build a nonpartisan world, not to delegate all social responsibilities from countless little puny political nitwits to one giant global git.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth

“Sonnet 1306

Doctors are not official representatives,
Yet they do their job quite efficiently.
Teachers are not official representatives,
Yet they do their job quite respectfully.

Public transport drivers ain't representatives,
Yet they carry their duties quite diligently.
Factory workers ain't official representatives,
Yet they fulfill their tasks rather honorably.

All the professions that actually require
some tangible skillsets and expertise,
don't rely on the jungle whim of democracy.
Yet the most glorified profession of all,
has no performance standards compulsory.

If this is your idea of a civilized democracy,
No wonder you still crave peace in nuclear weapons!
Only monkeys could confuse homicide with defense,
It takes a human to plant peace through illumination.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“All the professions that actually require some tangible skillsets and expertise, don't rely on the jungle whim of democracy. Yet the most glorified profession of all, has no performance standards compulsory.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“Meritocracy doesn’t play favorites.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, BECOME: Unleash the Power of Moral Character and Be Proud of the Life You Choose

“Meritocracy is a false and not very salutary belief. As with any ideology, part of its draw is that it justifies the status quo, explaining why people belong where they happen to be in the social order. It is a well-established psychological principle that people prefer to believe that the world is just.

However, in addition to legitimation, meritocracy also offers flattery. Where success is determined by merit, each win can be viewed as a reflection of one’s own virtue and worth. Meritocracy is the most self-congratulatory of distribution principles. Its ideological alchemy transmutes property into praise, material inequality into personal superiority. It licenses the rich and powerful to view themselves as productive geniuses. While this effect is most spectacular among the elite, nearly any accomplishment can be viewed through meritocratic eyes. Graduating from high school, artistic success or simply having money can all be seen as evidence of talent and effort. By the same token, worldly failures becomes signs of personal defects, providing a reason why those at the bottom of the social hierarchy deserve to remain there. ("A Belief in Meritocracy Is Not Only False: It’s Bad for You", Aeon)”
― Clifton Mark

“Один зі способів зрозуміти нещодавню історію — уявити собі чергу по каву: уранці ви йдете до «Старбаксу», відчайдушно потребуючи чашки звичайної кави, перш ніж почнете класти цеглу, а тим часом молода особа в костюмі для йоги від Lulu Lemon влізає перед вами без черги і замовляє лате без піни зі знежиреним мигдалевим молоком — на двадцять осіб. Потім ця людина, яка влізла без черги, обертається до вас і починає читати вам лекцію про те, який ви сексист, агресивний «расист, котрому, перш ніж висловлюватися, варто згадати про свої привілеї.”
― Adrian Wooldridge, The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World

“...it's perhaps time to admit that our perennial call to "work as if you lived in the early days of a better nation" has become something of an empty shibboleth. The petty, tribal, precriptive, censorious, identity-obsessed and philistine culture the SNP have created has left many older centrist heids reluctant to speak up over matters of simple common sense and public concern, conceding many of them not just to the right (with whom they are now occasionally driven to make common cause), but - far more dangerously - to the self-declared racists, sexists, homophobes and fascists who should represent our common enemy. The SNP are also, in their current incarnation, poor stewards of the independence dream. As we enter a pre-war era of economic uncertainty and shifting alliances, rediscovering it will be a far more sober and adult task than we have previously had to face. We first must decide what it is we mean by "better nation". It will have to be one with considerably more courage, genuine inclusivity and stomach for honest and civil debate than we currently demonstrate. It will require us to tackle the kinds of broad disadvantage that animate the electorate, as well as those narrow causes which excite our political and institutional leaders. It will require an Enlightenment-style revival of an artistic and intellectual meritocracy, one which can actively connect and draw on the talents of an increasingly diverse but distinctively Scottish society.”
― Don Paterson, Irish Pages, Vol. 12, No. 2: Scotland

“It is one of the defining features of any bureaucracy that those who staff it are selected by formal, impersonal criteria. Most often, some kind of test. That is, bureaucrats are not, say, elected like politicians. But neither should they get the job just because they are someone's cousin.

In theory, they are meritocracies. In fact, everyone knows that the system is compromised in a thousand different ways. Many of the staff are, in fact, there just because they are someone's cousin. And everybody knows it.”
― David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy