ON MERITOCRACY AND PRIVET HEDGES
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Modern-day socialist “progressives” and associated fringe radicals propose the abandonment of our national social system of meritocracy. A system which bases advancement in society on ability, merit and competition. These disillusioned folks would posit what they euphemistically call “equality” by abandoning competitive tests. They would assign jobs. and seats in our elite colleges on the basis of race. They would shun SAT tests, close classes for gifted children, and eliminate grades, as well as numerical test scores (and even eliminate arriving at the absolutely correct answers on math tests). All simply to attempt to insure “equal” but lower outcomes for all. But if not merit what criteria would the substitute for excellence? Race, skin tone, political party, sexual orientation?
These foolish proposals remind me of the privet hedge growing these many years at the edge of my front lawn. In the summer that hedge has to be attended to every few weeks. To keep it from becoming unsightly I must cut down the runaway fast growing straggly stalks—to keep all at a lower but equal level. I use hedge trimmers to impose my “equality” on that hedge.
Those who would eliminate our merit system are like the hedge trimmers. They would prefer to see us all cut low to some arbitrary level— a level they would impose. Variation in a species is nature’s way to insure adaptation to an environment. Individuals in our communities all vary in abilities and characteristics. Our merit system encourages excellence by choosing the best from this varied offering. All modern civilizing advances in science and technology are attributable to those elements in our population who like the fast growing spikes of flourishing privet grew faster and better than others. Modern advances from the wheel, the iPhone and even the messenger RNA, Covid SARS vaccine were produced by those better, smarter, faster growing members of our flourishing meritocracy. We all benefit in a meritocracy from the talent of these innovators . And we all lose when we crop every one down to the “lowest common denominator”.
Our great nation was built upon rewarding talent and ingenuity while keeping open all avenues to those who would take part in the great national competition. Who among us would prefer an imposed “equality” living an artificially .“leveled privet hedge” lifestyle, over life in the world’s most innovative, advanced society?
As misguided as abandoning our meritocracy, our ill-informed modern Democrat progressives have come up with other foolish, dangerous ideas designed to generate unattainable “equal outcomes”for all (while shunning Constitutionally guaranteed equal opportunity for all) :—They would defund the police, eliminate border control, end cash bail, abandon pre-trail detention for felonies, encourage runaway affirmative action—etc., etc. These radical ideas threaten the very core and survival of our nation—still the greatest in the world.
Such illogical Orwellian ideas, as noted above, only underscore what we may expect as an outcome resulting from abandoning merit and excellence in: seating our students, populating our critical professions, filling jobs, and selecting leadership positions. We clearly would not get the best. Never having been tried in the caldron of competitive fire the faulty ideas of these would be radical revisionists clearly and frighteningly reveal the weakness of a dystopian system where 1984 style chaos and tyranny would reign.
