luke wilson
The Living Force
Hi Guys,
So if you live in a western country and primarily the US/UK, you've probably heard that society is a meritocracy i.e. your efforts equate to the rewards you receive. It's very different from how it was back in the day, as far as I am aware. Things used to be more along the lines of, if you were a peasant, you'd always be a peasant and if you were high born, your place in society was assured i.e. your social economic status was pretty much set by birth.
Naturally, modern society isn't purely meritocratic but nonetheless this is the mantra and for intent and purpose the thing that has replaced the old feudal system.
Moving on....
So despite feeling a sort of weight brought upon by the idea of merit I could never accurately point out where it came from. You know, that thing you feel when you fail. That feeling that makes failure not an unfortunate thing but some sort of divine judgement as to the value of your soul, of your Being. That thing that makes you wary of and emotionally reactive to criticism as it crosses the threshold of feedback from another person into some sort of divine judgement of your worth.
The sorts of failures I'm talking about are whatever it is that drives you (people are naturally driven by different things) and whatever it is that makes you feel/think people judge your value upon (usually subconsciously) in social discourse (again different for different people).
Those sorts of failures somehow weigh that little bit more on ones self-esteem, sense of worth and all that sort of stuff really goes down the toilet.
I literally got educated into realising that the weight of this feeling is for a huge part determined by the idea of merit and that with each passing generation we get brought up to peg these values (self esteem, sense of worth etc) to merit in an increasing way...
This brings me to this lovely video I saw...
https://youtu.be/bTDGdKaMDhQ
I think it's self explanatory but I don't know how one can reconcile such a wonderful idea as merit with the darker side mentioned. It's a good thing that the most talented, most driven, most gifted should get rewarded but somehow it follows that the opposite suffer their pre-ordained fate (for being useless eaters). The ideas of accident/luck etc get relegated as people take more personal credit for their own fortunes (whether accident/luck was involved or not). More than anything, I think the really nefarious part of personal credit is the psychological element, the force it carries. I once read somewhere (and it could be false), that in ancient Greece, really creatively talented people thought they'd been gifted with a Muse that helped them and that this Muse was given to them by the grace of their gods (who could take it away at any time) as compared to today where a really creative person might think they are awesome just because, well, they are themself. There seems to be 'something' outside ourself that is getting lost with each generation. Again, the psychological effects of this, not only on the actual person but on those around them are cataclysmic really... OSIT.
The idea of merit also in a way leads to the below (which can be extended beyond what you simply do for a living into other things that may be used to judge and come up with your innate value as a human being)
https://youtu.be/Iipn6yM43sM
Lastly, in the race to succeed, achieve etc we unwittingly forget that 'losers' i.e. people who fail/don't achieve make up the vast majority of the population. As we worship those at the top, we forget that the largest mass of humanity lies at the bottom.
https://youtu.be/ip97YDkvbtY
I was thinking about this because it dawned on me recently that one thing changed massively without me really taking big note of it when I crossed the threshold from childhood into adulthood. When you are a child, you just sort of live but I guess when you become an adult, things change subtly in that it becomes a matter of achievement/or working towards achievement, one after the other. In a strange way, the success or failure of adulthood is measured by what you achieve or don't achieve. It's very easy to find yourself dismissed as having no merit due to lack of achievement when you are an adult as compared to when you are in your youth.
In a way, a pure STS society would have the rungs of society divided up into such a system the more I think about it. Your place in society would represent your merit and your merit would play a huge role in your experience of society.
So if you live in a western country and primarily the US/UK, you've probably heard that society is a meritocracy i.e. your efforts equate to the rewards you receive. It's very different from how it was back in the day, as far as I am aware. Things used to be more along the lines of, if you were a peasant, you'd always be a peasant and if you were high born, your place in society was assured i.e. your social economic status was pretty much set by birth.
Naturally, modern society isn't purely meritocratic but nonetheless this is the mantra and for intent and purpose the thing that has replaced the old feudal system.
Moving on....
So despite feeling a sort of weight brought upon by the idea of merit I could never accurately point out where it came from. You know, that thing you feel when you fail. That feeling that makes failure not an unfortunate thing but some sort of divine judgement as to the value of your soul, of your Being. That thing that makes you wary of and emotionally reactive to criticism as it crosses the threshold of feedback from another person into some sort of divine judgement of your worth.
The sorts of failures I'm talking about are whatever it is that drives you (people are naturally driven by different things) and whatever it is that makes you feel/think people judge your value upon (usually subconsciously) in social discourse (again different for different people).
Those sorts of failures somehow weigh that little bit more on ones self-esteem, sense of worth and all that sort of stuff really goes down the toilet.
I literally got educated into realising that the weight of this feeling is for a huge part determined by the idea of merit and that with each passing generation we get brought up to peg these values (self esteem, sense of worth etc) to merit in an increasing way...
This brings me to this lovely video I saw...
https://youtu.be/bTDGdKaMDhQ
I think it's self explanatory but I don't know how one can reconcile such a wonderful idea as merit with the darker side mentioned. It's a good thing that the most talented, most driven, most gifted should get rewarded but somehow it follows that the opposite suffer their pre-ordained fate (for being useless eaters). The ideas of accident/luck etc get relegated as people take more personal credit for their own fortunes (whether accident/luck was involved or not). More than anything, I think the really nefarious part of personal credit is the psychological element, the force it carries. I once read somewhere (and it could be false), that in ancient Greece, really creatively talented people thought they'd been gifted with a Muse that helped them and that this Muse was given to them by the grace of their gods (who could take it away at any time) as compared to today where a really creative person might think they are awesome just because, well, they are themself. There seems to be 'something' outside ourself that is getting lost with each generation. Again, the psychological effects of this, not only on the actual person but on those around them are cataclysmic really... OSIT.
The idea of merit also in a way leads to the below (which can be extended beyond what you simply do for a living into other things that may be used to judge and come up with your innate value as a human being)
https://youtu.be/Iipn6yM43sM
Lastly, in the race to succeed, achieve etc we unwittingly forget that 'losers' i.e. people who fail/don't achieve make up the vast majority of the population. As we worship those at the top, we forget that the largest mass of humanity lies at the bottom.
https://youtu.be/ip97YDkvbtY
I was thinking about this because it dawned on me recently that one thing changed massively without me really taking big note of it when I crossed the threshold from childhood into adulthood. When you are a child, you just sort of live but I guess when you become an adult, things change subtly in that it becomes a matter of achievement/or working towards achievement, one after the other. In a strange way, the success or failure of adulthood is measured by what you achieve or don't achieve. It's very easy to find yourself dismissed as having no merit due to lack of achievement when you are an adult as compared to when you are in your youth.
In a way, a pure STS society would have the rungs of society divided up into such a system the more I think about it. Your place in society would represent your merit and your merit would play a huge role in your experience of society.