Meritocracy is Dead - Diversity and Privilege in Higher Education
The Current State of Affairs
Mandatory diversity has become the all-decisive mantra of tolerant inclusion at colleges, universities and institutions of higher education almost everywhere in the last twenty years. Diversity, on its face, is a wonderful and positive thing - who doesn't like a diverse range of friends, foods, colors, fashion or music? But when it comes to levels of knowledge and competency among the people who are to educate the next generation of society .... not so much.
A meritocratic approach to higher education is something most rational individuals would likely agree with. We want the best and the brightest, the smartest and the most competent to teach our young people. And among our young people, it is in the best interest of society to promote and support the most intelligent, productive, emotionally stable and altruistic. In my opinion, such a meritocratic approach would be the most effective approach to combating social injustice and inequalities.
Unfortunately however, meritocracy is dead at our universities. Mandatory diversity has replaced meritocratic achievement in the attempt to combat 'white privilege' as the cornerstone of multigenerational societal inequalities. It is worth noting that 'white privilege' is attributed primarily to straight white males of European descent and is perceived as a (perhaps even unconsciously) weaponized form of ethno-cultural hegemonic power. White women can also "suffer" from white privilege, but as an oppressed class are largely given a pass unless they openly advocate strong white male role models.
Advocates of the white privilege narrative have found ideological support amongst the advocates of militant third wave feminism and a considerable portion of the LGBQT-to-Infinity movement. Absurdly, if an individual is a white male (or female) and sufficiently conforms to or identifies with these ideologies, they will no longer be considered part of the "problem". If however they do not, even if they are against what the term 'white privilege' is intended to represent, they still benefit from it and are thus categorically complicit in the systematic oppression of all minorities.
This belief system has completely undermined the concept and execution of meritocracy in higher education. Once arbitrary (and I would argue ultimately meaningless) factors like race, sex, and gender orientation must be considered in determining who is best suited to fulfill a knowledge and competency-based position of educational responsibility, it is no longer meritocratic. This results in what is increasingly being termed 'minority privilege' - the systematic and institutionalized privileging of anything that is not straight white male.
The following video perfectly sums up the victimhood-olympics mentality that is being used to determine success in higher education and who will be allowed to educate future generations.
Educayshun
The Intentional Perpetuation of Inequality
I have borne witness to more examples of minority privilege during my two decades at the university than I care to remember, but I thought it might prove useful for those that actually advocate minority privilege to consider the real-life consequences of this belief system in the form of a few examples. A belief system that perpetuates exactly the behavior they are against, just directed against a new group.
A very clear memory: a young and naive student asked a full professor during a department conference why there were no scholarships for men, since there were so many for women. Her answer, toned to ridicule him for even daring to voice such a thought crime was, I quote: "There has to be an advantageous disadvantaging of men to provide for equality. I had hoped you would understand that by now." Orwellian doublethink wrapped in newspeak at its finest.
I was not much surprised by this response, this was the same professor who laughed and applauded when her SJW LGBQT advocate assistant told me, upon entering the professor's office, "On your knees, this is a matriarchy!" They both thought this was highly entertaining. Of course, if two men looked at a woman who walked into the office and told a woman, "On your knees, this is a patriarchy!" they would have both been fired for sexual harassment, likely without even a panel hearing by the university equality and integration board, but because they belonged to a privileged minority their behavior was considered not only humorous but just and appropriate as well.
The same university sent an email letter proudly exclaiming "94% of our doctoral candidates in our liberal arts departments are now women or minorities. An increase in this percentage is expressly desired by the administration." They weren't disadvantaging anybody on a meritocratic basis, of course not, they were just advantaging others on thec basis of their identity. That makes it okay.
I have watched numerous university positions at numerous universities in the last twenty years go to women or minorities that were less published, had less teaching experience, less didactic competence, poorer social skills and less command of their discipline than male applicants, not even because there were quotas, but because of the desire for "diversity" or "reparation for past injustices" on the part of the hiring board or non-academic bureaucrats who ultimately held the purse strings.
An over-exaggeration? Unfortunately not. Look at almost any announcements for an academic position at the university level today and what you will find is a phrase that extols the following (do a Google search if you care to): The University of _______ is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply." or "The Universität _______ strives to achieve an increase in the percentage of women working at the university and, accordingly, expressly invites qualified women to apply for positions."
If instead it read something like: "The university is an equal opportunity, meritocratic employer. White passivist males of sound mind and body are encouraged to apply," or "The university strives to achieve an increase in the percentage of men working at the university and, accordingly, expressly invites qualified men to apply for positions." How exactly would that be any less discriminating from a meritocratic perspective?
Perhaps that is too much rationalism. I have tried this line of reasoning before and what I got back was "But, because institutionalized discrimination!" So let me get this straight: if some random white guy, or group of white guys, do something or create a system that another white man disagree with, that man should be held accountable for it and be thankful he can be disadvantaged because of it in the name of a greater social justice? Seriously? Has the cognitive capacity of the population been so stultified they can't objectively recognize the vicious hypocrisy and doublethink necessary to hold that position? Perhaps here it really is a matter of opinion, but I didn't seem able to get through to my interlocutor at the time.
Hint: You cannot get rid of inequality by treating people differently based on the color of their skin, their genitals or their gender belief system.
Revenge vs. Justice
Advocating minority privilege over meritocracy does not fight inequality, it perpetuates it. It also engenders feelings of resentment, sexism and racism by those who are disadvantaged by it. Why do you think there is so much hatred for cis white males today? Because they are perceived as having disadvantaged women and minorities. Now the victims want to be the victimizers. Catch 22 much?
Among the SJW crowd, it is now apparently fashionable to hold people accountable for things they have never done nor would never condone in the name of social justice. How just! It is practically biblical of the avenging atheists to visit the sins of the father upon the sons. How righteous!
Revenge is not justice. And today the social justice movement seems a lot more like a social revenge movement than anything remotely similar to justice. Countless millions of people are currently being demonized by charges of blanket racism and sexism from the (mostly radical leftist) politically correct thought police who remain adamantly opposed to recognizing the hypocrisy of their rhetoric or behavior. This is brainwashing at its finest. All hail doublethink!
The radical doublethink of privileging anybody based on their race or sex to combat racism and sexism is beyond mind-boggling. Rather than establishing a meritocratic system that requires the non-consideration of race and sex, the exact opposite has occurred. This is not a "response mechanism" to solve a problem, it is a reactionary swing of the pendulum that perpetuates and hastens the complete dissolution of social cohesion by transferring "privilege" to a new group. The very idea that the pendulum could now be swinging away from the SJW movement has resulted in its advocates engaging in preemptory defensive violence to silence words of opposition.
The pendulum needs to stop swinging, but whichever side happens to be profiting at the moment inevitably resists, causing ever more tension and causing the pendulum to swing all the more forcefully.
It has gotten much worse than many people know. The social justice crusade to impose the belief that "white privilege" is the bedrock of all injustice has taken a chilling turn. Silencing, disadvantaging, killing, raping, aborting , robbing and segregating whites has become considered justifiable behavior in the name of fighting racism. How exactly is that not hypocritical racist insanity? All of this idiocy was distilled and crystallized in the recent catastrophe that will hopefully become known as the death knell of the social justice movement and identity politics at Evergreen State College.
But I digress.
The Big Picture
Meritocracy in western civilization is dying in favor of a cultist ideology of victim adoration, where those who are perceived as the most victimized, disadvantaged and underprivileged are considered the most worthy of, well, anything and everything.
What so many of the young SJW crowd fail to understand is that true hegemonic power, derived from wealth and power, makes absolutely no distinction as to the race, color, sex, age, ethnicity or culture of an individual. The hyper-wealthy and truly powerful walk over the corpses of men and women, white, black and brown in their tireless pursuit of dominance. They don't care about you, me or anybody outside their money and power-based cliques. They want you feeling guilty or oppressed or attacking those around you so the real conflict never reaches the people at the top of power pyramid. While SJWs are berating their neighbors, colleagues and friends for not being tolerant or politically correct enough, while they are attacking the sheeple who (just like them) have fallen for the divide and conquer tactics, the über-rich are pondering how to keep the central banking system of indentured servitude up and running forever. They are what George Carlin called The Big Club.
I care about your ideas, not your race, sex or gender. I care about competency, integrity, reason and altruism. You are either fighting for freedom, justice and equality in a rational world, or you are mired in slave-think and attacking your fellow slaves.
To better understand this last statement, please view:
The Story of Your Enslavement
Conclusion
The current sociopolitical climate is a form of mass reactionary hysteria to the narrative of the radical Frankfurter School disciples that has taken root at the universities and in the controlled media throughout the west. If you are a SJW and don't understand the postmodern turn as ushered in by the critical theorists of the Frankfurter School, you are a dupe or, as the Marxists term it, a useful idiot for their cause. But that is a discussion for another time.
The death of meritocracy in higher education and the adoption of minority privilege and identity politics by society as a whole is an existential crisis for western democratic civilization and, at its root, is the result of ignorance and immorality masquerading as insight and empowerment. As long as the educational establishment propagates the ideology of retribution as justice the problem is only going to get worse. Unfortunately so many at the universities are so deeply indoctrinated into the belief system that inequality will eliminate inequality and that they are the good guys, it is literally impossible to reason with them.
Buckle up. It's going to be a wild ride.
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis." - Dante
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Shot with a golden arrow,
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Don't forget to upvote, follow and resteem! Comments always appreciated.
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All gifs courtesy of Giphy
p.s. This post is a more developed response to Deva Winblood's post White Privilege? Yes, I am white.... Thanks for the encouragement Deva.
tag: education justice racism sexism privilege politically incorrect diversity