Meritocracy Quotes

“Neoliberalism insists that if we work hard enough, we can earn as much money as anyone else. Of course, the concept of meritocracy is integral to neoliberalism and erases the reality of capital itself, that capitalism is not just material capital but also, importantly, social and cultural capital. Without these forms of capital, (p. 77) one cannot, in fact, “succeed” in a capitalist culture. One obvious example is the art world, where one can only have their work shown in a gallery if they have connections to that gallery (galleries do not, for the most part, accept unsolicited submissions). All the cash in the world can’t create the generations of social connections of a middle-class family, whose circle might include art collectors, gallerists, critics, and artists. It is also the values and unspoken rules of the ruling class that distinguish who is allowed in and who is not.”
― Cynthia Cruz, The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working Class

“There is evidence of the triumph of meritocracy, that each of us should be allowed to rise as far as our talent and hard work can take us.”
― Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures

“Ah yes, the meritocracy. Isn't it amazing how so many of the 'best people for the job' always happen to be white, cis-het, middle-class men? It couldn't be that structural inequality and hierarchal privilege allows for such people to succeed by making their path to power smoother and more accessible than anyone's else's.”
― Clementine Ford, Boys Will Be Boys: Power, Patriarchy and the Toxic Bonds of Mateship

“In a sense, all schooling in the United States was an elaborate training session for the free market, democratic, meritocratic, modern, bloodless warfare that would dominate their adult lives.”
― David Shenk, The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science and the Human Brain

“Voting is a fundamental right and an important duty in our society.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“When, the voter participation is too low. This has negative effects on political discourse as well as economic and social outcomes.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Apolitical people are often unaware of the procedural aspects of voting.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“A lot of nonvoters have a very hazy understanding of what the government does and what levels of government carry out which functions. But almost everyone cares about what happens in their own communities.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Fear is an excellent motivator, and voting is no exception.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“If you can’t get your targets to vote for a positive vision of the future, convince them to vote against a vision of impending doom.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“One of the best ways to get an individual voter out to the polls is through a personal appeal. In this sense, a personal appeal means an appeal to a specific person and not people in general.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“A subtle but effective way of encouraging an irregular voter is by slightly altering your vocabulary when you ask questions. For reasons that are unclear, people’s internal identity is only loosely connected to their actions—until they’re reminded of the discrepancy between the two. Use that to your advantage by emphasizing the identity of being a voter rather than the act of voting.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Create a sense of obligation. When you want to persuade someone to do something, one of the best ways you can accomplish this task is to make that person feel obligated to you.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Before you ask the person to vote, do something nice and unexpected that will make that person feel the need to reciprocate the favor.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“A great way to persuade people is by making them feel like they're missing out, because people are much more likely to participate in something if they feel like they're the only ones not doing it.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, The Secret of Greatness

“Ik zou haar leren dat dit een land is waar alle wegen wagenwijd openstaan, dat het een kwestie van toewijding is om succes te behalen, dat ze geen slachtoffer is, dat het hier een meritocratie is, in tegenstelling tot Turkije en vele andere oorden.”
― Lale Gül, Ik ga leven

“These people come from poor and middle-class homes. They come from different language schools. Singapore is a meritocracy. And these men have risen to the top by their own merit, hard work and high performance.”
― Fook Kwang Han, Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going

“Money comes from working hard" I've come to believe is just a line rich people tell themselves to feel better. Lots of people work hard and get nothing. It's just a myth: "Come to America, work hard, get rich", like dying and going to heaven.”
― Dash Shaw, Doctors

“Meritocracy is about the perfect team: the perfect players and coaches working together perfectly so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. When this team model is applied to society, you get the perfect State, in which everyone is optimized and all are going in the same direction, spiraling upwards to a glorious culmination.”
― Jack Tanner, The Best You: The Politics of Self-Optimization

“The Best State is the one that makes the Best You, the Best Everyone. It’s all about living your best life. It’s the job of the State to provide you with the infrastructure, rational laws and equal opportunities to make that happen. You have to be able to see it to be it. Once everyone can see the perfect State in operation, producing perfect citizens, no one will ever again oppose the State. Once you see how to be a perfect citizen, you will be it. Remember: See it to be it.”
― Jack Tanner, The Best You: The Politics of Self-Optimization

“The American dream of economic meritocracy where virtue is equated with wealth.”
― Madison Hamill, Specimen

“When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; it it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.”
― Pericles

“When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.”
― Pericles

“A 2002 Wall Street Journal article provided eye-opening details about how comprehensive review worked in practice. UCLA had accepted a Hispanic girl with SATs of 940, while rejecting a Korean student with 1500s. The Korean student hardly lived in the lap of luxury. He tutored children to pay rent for his divorced mother, who developed breast cancer.”
― Heather Mac Donald, The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture

“all cooperative schemes which provide equal remuneration to the skilled and industrious and the ignorant and idle must work their own downfall, For by this unjust plan they must of necessity eliminate the valuable members and retain only the improvident, unskilled and vicious.”
― Robert Dale Owen

“If someone had talent--any talent--it needed to be cultivated and groomed and trained. It didn't matter where they came from, or who their fathers were. What mattered was the talent.”
― Terry Mancour, Warmage

“I recognized that the racialized liberalism in which I was educated--where we strive for a bigger part of some mythological pie that our fractured identities are in competition for--leaves us without a language with which to talk about inequality. It leaves black and white in perpetual opposition, a state that feeds the plantation mentality.”
― Tessa McWatt, Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging

“Nepotism is like termite, to the pillars of meritocracy.”
― Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma, Modified Leadership

“While legal changes in the way we vote are the best way to increase turnout, there are a number of steps that can be taken to encourage targeted voters and our personal acquaintances to cast a ballot.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice, Relaxing Poetry

“The government touches everyone’s lives in more ways than one, and everyone has an opinion about how the government should handle various issues—even if they don’t realize it.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice