It is bad for some of the values, such as meritocracy, to be kept so long, when they bring out selfishness, me first and other bad impacts. It also breeds the culture of arrogance and inability to see the views of other people.
There is no conflict between meritocracy and core values. In fact meritocracy could be one of the core values.
There are other values in core values which shape our characters. For exmaple, a person can do or give all his/her best for the benefit of others, Gandhi and Mother Theresa come into my mind.
Perhaps, it is the excessive emphasis on Meritocracy that need to be slaughtered, but not Meritocracy itself. Meritocracy has its good and bad effects. So we only need to get rid of the bad aspects and keep the good aspects.
I think Meritocracy works very well when a country is developing from a more "pastoral" or less developed economy, when the basic "proverty trap" is more pronounced.
As an economy matures into "developed" status ... the focus should be shifted away from meritocracy to say "narrowing the income gap" ... call this the "new poor" or "new proverty trap" or whatsover...the sandwiched "middle-class" becomes more important with the few poors left.
Unfortunately, S'pore had failed to realise or simply ignore this. Hence, meritocracy supports the "rich" to become "richer" or to climb higher in the economic-social ladder.
It is bad for some of the values, such as meritocracy, to be kept so long, when they bring out selfishness, me first and other bad impacts. It also breeds the culture of arrogance and inability to see the views of other people.
ReplyDeleteThere is no conflict between meritocracy and core values. In fact meritocracy could be one of the core values.
ReplyDeleteThere are other values in core values which shape our characters. For exmaple, a person can do or give all his/her best for the benefit of others, Gandhi and Mother Theresa come into my mind.
Perhaps, it is the excessive emphasis on Meritocracy that need to be slaughtered, but not Meritocracy itself. Meritocracy has its good and bad effects. So we only need to get rid of the bad aspects and keep the good aspects.
ReplyDeleteI think Meritocracy works very well when a country is developing from a more "pastoral" or less developed economy, when the basic "proverty trap" is more pronounced.
ReplyDeleteAs an economy matures into "developed" status ... the focus should be shifted away from meritocracy to say "narrowing the income gap" ... call this the "new poor" or "new proverty trap" or whatsover...the sandwiched "middle-class" becomes more important with the few poors left.
Unfortunately, S'pore had failed to realise or simply ignore this. Hence, meritocracy supports the "rich" to become "richer" or to climb higher in the economic-social ladder.