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Meritocracy Quotes

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Meritocracy Quotes

“Don't vote for someone just because they're a part of a certain party. There have been many great leaders from the main parties, and their greatness has been based on their abilities/skills, their knowledge, their experience and their intellectual prowess. Don't let their title or party membership sway you. Look for someone who is capable, competent and responsible, who is willing to put people before power.”

PoliticsDemocracyVotingElectionsMeritocracyVoting RightsVoterOscar Auliq Ice
Book:The Secret of Greatness
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“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.”

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Book:The Secret of Greatness
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“The search for better, for more competent men, from the presidents of our great companies down to our household servants, was never more vigorous than it is now. And more than ever before is the demand for competent men in excess of the supply. What we are all looking for, however, is the readymade, competent man; the man whom some one else has trained. It is only when we fully realize that our duty, as well as our opportunity, lies in systematically cooperating to train and to make this competent man, instead of in hunting for a man whom some one else has trained, that we shall be on the road to national efficiency. In the past the prevailing idea has been well expressed in the saying that “Captains of industry are born, not made”; and the theory has been that if one could get the right man, methods could be safely left to him. In the future it will be appreciated that our leaders must be trained right as well as born right, and that no great man can (with the old system of personal management) hope to compete with a number of ordinary men who have been properly organized so as efficiently to cooperate. In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first. This in no sense, however, implies that great men are not needed. On the contrary, the first object of any good system must be that of developing first-class men; and under systematic management the best man rises to the top more certainly and more rapidly than ever before.”

SocietyDevelopmentManagementExcellenceCooperationSystemsMeritocracyRecruitingCompetency
Book:The Principles of Scientific Management
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“Meritocracy is a false and not very salutary belief. As with any ideology, part of its draw is that it justifies the status quo, explaining why people belong where they happen to be in the social order. It is a well-established psychological principle that people prefer to believe that the world is just. However, in addition to legitimation, meritocracy also offers flattery. Where success is determined by merit, each win can be viewed as a reflection of one’s own virtue and worth. Meritocracy is the most self-congratulatory of distribution principles. Its ideological alchemy transmutes property into praise, material inequality into personal superiority. It licenses the rich and powerful to view themselves as productive geniuses. While this effect is most spectacular among the elite, nearly any accomplishment can be viewed through meritocratic eyes. Graduating from high school, artistic success or simply having money can all be seen as evidence of talent and effort. By the same token, worldly failures becomes signs of personal defects, providing a reason why those at the bottom of the social hierarchy deserve to remain there. ("A Belief in Meritocracy Is Not Only False: It’s Bad for You", Aeon)”

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Author:Clifton Mark
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“We talk about creating an utopia, but we install an empire and we build our success on the back of the exploited. We talk about equality, but we ignore the power structures that silence the voices of the less powerful. We talk about meritocracy, but we only promote and care for those from the core planets. We talk about science and rationality, but we pray to extinct gods and worship mutated humans.”

SuccessScienceReligionEqualityRationalityUtopiaMeritocracyEgalitarianismEmpirePower Structures
Book:Ancient as the Stars: A Space Opera Adventure
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“Narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing ideologies of individualism and meritocracy. They also do whites a disservice by obscuring the white allies behind the scenes who worked hard and long to open the field. These allies could serve as much-needed role models for other whites.”

RacismAlliesMeritocracyExceptionalismRacial EqualityExceptionalityDesegregation
Book:What Does It Mean to Be White?: Developing White Racial Literacy
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“It seems to me that obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those in power and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have most of it already.”

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Author:Peggy McIntosh
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“For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country; one's life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.”

PeopleIfsGivingCountryLife IsCertainWhiteVirtueDoorsSubjectsGiving UpRacismPressurePrivilegeMythElusiveWhite PrivilegeFugitiveMeritocracyFree Country
Author:Peggy McIntosh
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“The dissonance that I felt daily flew in the face of what Silicon Valley says about itself: that it is a meritocracy, that it values intelligence and creativity, that everyone has a fair shot if they just work hard enough. This was true only if you were technical, and even that may not always be enough: in the age of the social network, who you know and who your friends were was becoming increasingly important.”

IfsKnowsMayImportantHardEnoughAgeFacesValuesSocialFeltCreativityHard WorkBecomingShotsFairsValleysFlewSocial NetworkSiliconSilicon ValleyMeritocracyDissonanceWho You Know
Book:The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network
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“A meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment; luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement and, probably, income; luckiest in their educational and career opportunities; and luckiest in so many other ways difficult to enumerate - these are the folks who reap the largest rewards.”

PeopleWayOpportunityDifficultTermCareersSupportEncouragementRewardsFolksEducationalIncomeReapEndowmentMeritocracyFamily SupportCareer OpportunitiesNatural Endowment
Author:Ben Bernanke
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“I think you are looking at sexuality and not attributes, and I think it's odd because the conservative mantra is a meritocracy. And I think what you're suggesting is the fact that being gay parents makes you not as good as others. And I would suggest that a loving, gay family with a financially secure background beats the hell out of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline any day of the week.”

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Author:Jon Stewart
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“Radical transparency is critical to having an idea meritocracy because it shows what's actually happening without spin and prevents people from maneuvering politically behind each others' backs. It brings problems and weaknesses to the surface and allows people to see how they are dealt with, so it's great for training people on how to deal with real problems.”

PeopleIdeasRealShowsProblemDealsBehindsTrainingHappeningsWeaknessCriticalSurfaceRadicalTransparencyReal ProblemsMeritocracy
Author:Ray Dalio
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“You have the Republican Party, who see themselves in their heart of hearts as being a party of colorblind meritocracy. That's their great belief about themselves. And yet somehow you also have a party where a lot of racial resentment and a camp of even neo-Nazis have set up camp in their party. If you point it out to them, they get mad at you, not at the neo-Nazis.”

IfsHeartBeliefPartyRepublicanMadCampsResentmentNaziRepublican PartyMeritocracy
Author:Van Jones
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“In order to get past disagreements, you just can't have one person with power decide. In other words, so just because I'm a boss, it would be terrible if I then said, "Okay, we're gonna go do this." That's why, after that thoughtful disagreement, there has to be a process of an idea meritocracy. That means okay, now you have to vote, not that the decision resides with power. And then you vote and move beyond it.”

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Author:Ray Dalio
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