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Meritocracy. It seems like an ideal way to reward people for their efforts and appears to have been successful over the past 40 odd years. Is that system really FAIR? It seems to have a slant towards elitism. Why?


I got my inspiration for this piece from Full Metal Alchemist(that's an anime) and it's main theme which centrals around the idea of equivalent trade. Pardon me if it's not that well written. I need to oil my brain.

Meritocracy. I'm sure many of us are familiar with the concept of meritocracy. Reward those that do the best, yea? Is that really fair? If you look at it from a certain way(like I did after I got "enlightened"), it's just another form of elitism. Just that it's a more subtle form.(i think, at least. open for debate i guess) Why? Let's simplify it. Put it in the context of a school. Someone of higher intellect can easily accomplish a task much faster and probably much more better and much more efficient than someone who is of lower intellect who would, arguably, have to put in more effort. The same goes for work. Someone who is more talented in singing would not have to put in as much effort as someone who lacks the talent in singing to achieve the same results. Sure, they get rewarded with the same carrots for their brilliant achievements. The flaw with this entire concept of meritocracy is that it looks at only the end. The END and perhaps, nothing else.

Whether meritocracy is really seen as fair really depends on how you look at it. What is fairness? To be rewarded in the same manner for similar achievements? OR should someone who works harder(despite having the same result or something that is less impressive) be rewarded more? The former, of course, encourages efficiency. But there are always those that can never achieve the same result regardless of the effort they put in. That's talent. And it's a word that people always look out for. In actual fact, the less-abled or the less talented aren't very much better off as compared to if they were under some form of system which subscribes to elitism. Shouldn't someone who puts in more effort,but achieves the same result, be rewarded more? That's if you look at rewarding for effort. Well, which system works better? I don't know. But objectively, it appears the more efficient of the two, that which rewards results, seem to be better. But still, it's not completely unrelated from it's slant towards elitism. We may not have an egalitarian society but perhaps one day, there might be a better value to guide the way some of us work, apart from meritocracy that is.