复盘：对精英主义的反思3/2023

1.The admissions obsession has its origins in the growing inequality of recent decades.
2.Income inequalities due to natural talents are no more just than inequalities that arise from class differences.
Meritocratic hubris reflects the tendency of winners to inhale too deeply of their success, to forget the luck and good fortune that helped them on their way. It is the smug conviction of those who land on top that they deserve their fate, and that those on the bottom deserve theirs, too.[精英的傲慢忽视了他们所谓的才能不过是运气所获以及恰好生活在奖赏这种才能的时代，他们强调的努力也离不开父母和老师的栽培而不仅仅是他们自身的成果。]
3.The notion that your fate is in your hands, that “you can make it if you try,” is a double-edged sword, inspiring in one way but invidious in another. It congratulates the winners but denigrates the losers, even in their own eyes. For those who can’t find work or make ends meet, it is hard to escape the demoralizing thought that their failure is their own doing, that they simply lack the talent and drive to succeed.
    The more we view ourselves as self-made and self-sufficient, the less likely we are to care for the fate of those less fortunate than ourselves. If my success is my own doing, their failure must be their fault. This logic makes meritocracy corrosive of commonality. Too strenuous a notion of personal responsibility for our fate makes it hard to imagine ourselves in other people’s shoes.[精英主义一方面大加赞赏赢家，另一方面却又向输家施加侮辱，甚至让输家自己也不由自主地认为他们的失败是咎由自取。精英主义的观念使所谓的精英阶层较少为那些没有他们幸运的人设身处地的着想，限制向因自身原因而落入贫困境地的人群进行救济的福利措施就是一个例子（The welfare state has become less “responsibility buffering” and more “responsibility tracking.”）。]
4.【精英主义的缺陷】First, under conditions of rampant inequality and stalled mobility, reiterating the message that we are responsible for our fate and deserve what we get erodes solidarity and demoralizes those left behind by globalization.(This strenuous notion of individual responsibility makes it hard to summon the sense of solidarity and mutual obligation that could equip us to contend with the rising inequality of our time.)
Second, insisting that a college degree is the primary route to a respectable job and a decent life creates a credentialist prejudice that ①valorizes credentialism②undermines the dignity of work ③and demeans those who have not been to college.It devalues the contributions of those without a diploma, fuels prejudice against less-educated members of society, effectively excludes most working people from representative government, and provokes political backlash.
and third, insisting that social and political problems are best solved by highly educated, value-neutral experts is a technocratic conceit that corrupts democracy and disempowers ordinary citizens.

5.Allocating jobs and opportunities according to merit does not reduce inequality; it reconfigures inequality to align with ability. But this reconfiguration creates a presumption that people get what they deserve. And this presumption deepens the gap between rich and poor.
What matters for a meritocracy is that everyone has an equal chance to climb the ladder of success; it has nothing to say about how far apart the rungs on the ladder should be. The meritocratic ideal is not a remedy for inequality; it is a justification of inequality.
6.【精英主义盛行下高等教育的弊端 】The winner-take-all re-sorting of higher education was undesirable for two reasons. First, it reinforced inequality, as the colleges that fared best in the selectivity sweepstakes were generally the ones with the highest proportion of wealthy students. Second, it exacted a damaging toll on the winners. Unlike the old hereditary elite, which assumed its place at the top without much fuss or bother, the new meritocratic elite wins its place through strenuous striving.
“For children and parents alike,” Luthar writes, “it is nearly impossible to ignore the ubiquitous, pervasive message emblazoned from their early years onward: there is one path to ultimate happiness—having money—that in turn comes from attending prestigious colleges.”

The habit of hoop-jumping is hard to break. Many still feel so driven to strive that they find it difficult to use their college years as a time to think, explore, and critically reflect on who they are and what is worth caring about.

Beyond these clinical conditions, psychologists have found a subtler affliction bearing down on this generation of college students: a “hidden epidemic of perfectionism.”“Irrational ideals of the perfect self have become desirable—even necessary—in a world where performance, status and image define a person’s usefulness and value,”
This in turn reflects a broader shift in the role of colleges and universities: their credentialing function now looms so large that it overwhelms their educational function. The sorting and striving crowd out teaching and learning.
Despite its aspirational appeal, the meritocratic insistence that a four-year college degree is the gateway to success distracts us from taking seriously the educational needs of most people. This neglect not only hurts the economy; it expresses a lack of respect for the kind of work the working class does.
⚠️7.Overcoming the tyranny of merit does not mean that merit should play no role in the allocation of jobs and social roles.
Instead, it means rethinking the way we conceive success, questioning the meritocratic conceit that those on top have made it on their own. And it means challenging inequalities of wealth and esteem that are defended in the name of merit but that foster resentment, poison our politics, and drive us apart.

8.it is a mistake to assume that the market value of this or that job is the measure of its contribution to the common good