Hello. I live in Melbourne Australia. I am a 61 year old wrought iron craftsman. I did my apprenticeship in the late 70’s. Back then, year 9 (3rd secondary year) was all that was required to get an apprenticeship. Today, a youngster needs to complete year 12 then a pre apprenticeship year. A tertiary education seems to be the end goal & answer to All Problems in 2024. I was qualified by the time a current era person starts their apprenticeship. If I’d have been forced to sit behind a desk a further 4 years, I wouldn’t have made it. I’m one of the “Craftsmen” in the essay & Im happy with my place in the world. I have worked 40+ years in a modern country with good standards. I own my home, this in its self is a major achievement. In one way I have moved up a tier in society however I’m not from a ruling class nor do I want to be. The acceptance of my reality is a major contributor to my contentment in life. ✊🏻
" due to the talented moving up classes in a meritocratic society, they all become concentrated at the top into a political and financial elite, while the lower classes are sucked dry of their talent thereby creating a perpetually dysgenic underclass."
As a side note, Robert Penn Warren (author of All the KIng's Men) wrote an essay in the 60s against the whole idea of "integration" along the same lines. Talented blacks, given the opportunity, would move out of black communities to get rich and famous in New York or Boston, leaving their communities bereft of elite professionals. Another way to put it, blacks cannot compete in White society, and so are better off among themselves.
Comparing the health of black communities before and after integration today confirms his insight, and by analogy yours.
This is also why there is a "white trash" class which does not seem to ever go away. The best of the "white trash", likewise get sucked upwards and leave the underclasses in a prepetual state of dysgenia. The best of a subclass should thus not "move up the meritocratic ladder", but should instead uplift and govern the rest of their respective subclass thereby cultivating a healtier existence for all within that class. One of the greatest reasons this does not happen is because of the hyper individualistic and competitive impulses that are incentivized by the classical liberal meritocratic worldview.
One way in which this can be mitigated is by discourging higher education and getting more and more people to pursue trades, crafts. This should especially apply to the youth, both to those who are gifted and those who are not. The intelligent and gifted among every subclass must be encouraged to take control of their station in life rather than abandoning it for the allures of higher stations. For it is better to be a master of a lower station than to be a slave in a higher station. This is the aristocratic mentality which is in sharp contrast to the meritocratic mentality. The Aristocrat gives back and cultivates what he inherits. The Meritocrat seeks to buy and sell his way up to the top and he will sacrifice many along the way.
This was enlightening. It explains why our upper classes have become so course and unwholesome and why our lower classes have become more and more degenerate and dysgenic.
Now that the classes have become so thoroughly intermingled, how do you re-establish a natural order where members of all castes stop striving for money and instead strive for personal betterment. How do we create a society where the bourgeoisie abandon their almost esoteric materialism?
Hey, did you hear about TIK history being a fan of the Youtube channel?
Hello. I live in Melbourne Australia. I am a 61 year old wrought iron craftsman. I did my apprenticeship in the late 70’s. Back then, year 9 (3rd secondary year) was all that was required to get an apprenticeship. Today, a youngster needs to complete year 12 then a pre apprenticeship year. A tertiary education seems to be the end goal & answer to All Problems in 2024. I was qualified by the time a current era person starts their apprenticeship. If I’d have been forced to sit behind a desk a further 4 years, I wouldn’t have made it. I’m one of the “Craftsmen” in the essay & Im happy with my place in the world. I have worked 40+ years in a modern country with good standards. I own my home, this in its self is a major achievement. In one way I have moved up a tier in society however I’m not from a ruling class nor do I want to be. The acceptance of my reality is a major contributor to my contentment in life. ✊🏻
" due to the talented moving up classes in a meritocratic society, they all become concentrated at the top into a political and financial elite, while the lower classes are sucked dry of their talent thereby creating a perpetually dysgenic underclass."
As a side note, Robert Penn Warren (author of All the KIng's Men) wrote an essay in the 60s against the whole idea of "integration" along the same lines. Talented blacks, given the opportunity, would move out of black communities to get rich and famous in New York or Boston, leaving their communities bereft of elite professionals. Another way to put it, blacks cannot compete in White society, and so are better off among themselves.
Comparing the health of black communities before and after integration today confirms his insight, and by analogy yours.
This is also why there is a "white trash" class which does not seem to ever go away. The best of the "white trash", likewise get sucked upwards and leave the underclasses in a prepetual state of dysgenia. The best of a subclass should thus not "move up the meritocratic ladder", but should instead uplift and govern the rest of their respective subclass thereby cultivating a healtier existence for all within that class. One of the greatest reasons this does not happen is because of the hyper individualistic and competitive impulses that are incentivized by the classical liberal meritocratic worldview.
One way in which this can be mitigated is by discourging higher education and getting more and more people to pursue trades, crafts. This should especially apply to the youth, both to those who are gifted and those who are not. The intelligent and gifted among every subclass must be encouraged to take control of their station in life rather than abandoning it for the allures of higher stations. For it is better to be a master of a lower station than to be a slave in a higher station. This is the aristocratic mentality which is in sharp contrast to the meritocratic mentality. The Aristocrat gives back and cultivates what he inherits. The Meritocrat seeks to buy and sell his way up to the top and he will sacrifice many along the way.
Did meritocracy not give us experts?
It did. But it costed us a lot.
Agree. (My comment was tongue in cheek.) Meritocracy = Bill Gates? Dog Kings.
It is necessary to have a self respect that demands the best of us. For real.
This was enlightening. It explains why our upper classes have become so course and unwholesome and why our lower classes have become more and more degenerate and dysgenic.
Now that the classes have become so thoroughly intermingled, how do you re-establish a natural order where members of all castes stop striving for money and instead strive for personal betterment. How do we create a society where the bourgeoisie abandon their almost esoteric materialism?