Fascism is Heroarchy

[CharlesPhipps]

Oh, absolutely, no question. You would have to remove inherited titles and money for any sort of true meritocracy to work and that isn't happening. The idea is impossible with our social structure. But the original post implied that meritocracy as a concept is dystopian of which I do not agree.

Communism which I would argue is the flipside of the coin wouldn't work for the same reasons.

Part of the issue is, and I say this as an ANARCHIST, is that the idea of a "meritocracy" would be that you would assume that someone would only be interested in working for THEMSELVES. When, in fact, most people like working for also the people they like.

Inherited wealth is on some level selfless because it's about giving it to your loved ones.

Also, what is the benefit of a meritocracy? It plays into the idiocy that wealth should be earned than shared.

[pilight]

Going back to the original post, it's not just the left who need to abandon meritocracy. Everyone should abandon it. The word was coined to describe a dystopian society. People who argue for it always reserve the right to define what "merit" is and shockingly they always choose to describe people like themselves.

I'm sorry but I have absolutely no problem with the notion that the cream should automatically rise to the top. The alternative is Donald Trump as president - a notion that if you suggested it ten years ago it would look like either slippery slope fallacy or reductio ad absurdum. And yet, here we are aren't we? Perhaps even for a second time.

Trump is an example of meritocracy in action. Most people would place things like wealth and quality education very high on the list of ways to measure "merit".

Cream is less important than milk...

We're not all equal. And we can bleat and cry about that all we want but this a luxury afforded to us by our incredibly over-privileged society that allows under-achievers to flourish. And i'm not putting myself on some pedestal here. If civilisation fell tomorrow, it would be the job of society to save the astronauts, the surgeons, the scientists, the scholars. It wouldn't be to save me for any other purpose than manual labour. This is what acknowledging realism looks like.

We're not all equal but we should all be treated equally under the law. We should all have equal rights. We should all have equal access to the necessities of life. Otherwise what's the point of civilization?

Manual labor is just as essential as those other things. There would be no astronauts without the assembly line workers that build their spacecraft. There would be no scholars without the millwrights at the paper mill.

I agree however that it is very difficult to set an objective set of measurements as to who the ''best'' are and it would be very difficult to enforce. But that does not change my belief that the world would be better off for it if we managed to pull it off.

It's not difficult, it's impossible.

[CharlesPhipps]

How you measure "the best" varies by PERSON, though.

Who should be the President?

The smartest or the kindest?

Because the smartest asshole doesn't help.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Going back to the original post, it's not just the left who need to abandon meritocracy. Everyone should abandon it. The word was coined to describe a dystopian society. People who argue for it always reserve the right to define what "merit" is and shockingly they always choose to describe people like themselves.

Wait, where is meritocracy on the left, or, what are you referring to specifically?

[CharlesPhipps]

I'm ambivalent about meritocracy as an anarchist but I think I've made my opinions clear that I don't think fascism is remotely linked to meritocracy and is in fact a conformist cult of personality that doesn't especially have much to do with the cult of heroism.

Spider-Man is about you rising above to do good.

Fascism is about obeying the Leader.

[MithrandirOlorin]

I'm ambivalent about meritocracy as an anarchist but I think I've made my opinions clear that I don't think fascism is remotely linked to meritocracy and is in fact a conformist cult of personality that doesn't especially have much to do with the cult of heroism.

Spider-Man is about you rising above to do good.

Fascism is about obeying the Leader.

WRONG!

[Madner Kami]

Spider-Man is about you rising above to do good.

Because you've got a more individualistic point of view, particularly a very american way of viewing things. Look at Spiderman through the lense of someone who's less inclined to think that way and what you see is an Ubermensch raising himself above all, including the democratically constructed law. Ayn Rand says hello and so does Hitler.

[clearspira]

Spider-Man is about you rising above to do good.

Because you've got a more individualistic point of view, particularly a very american way of viewing things. Look at Spiderman through the lense of someone who's less inclined to think that way and what you see is an Ubermensch raising himself above all, including the democratically constructed law. Ayn Rand says hello and so does Hitler.

''With great power comes great responsibility.''

Also.

''Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.''

Surely your response to this conundrum is what elevates you to the status of hero? The man you are describing sounds like Homelander, not Spider-Man.

[MithrandirOlorin]

Spider-Man is about you rising above to do good.

Because you've got a more individualistic point of view, particularly a very american way of viewing things. Look at Spiderman through the lense of someone who's less inclined to think that way and what you see is an Ubermensch raising himself above all, including the democratically constructed law. Ayn Rand says hello and so does Hitler.

''With great power comes great responsibility.''

Also.

''Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.''

Surely your response to this conundrum is what elevates you to the status of hero? The man you are describing sounds like Homelander, not Spider-Man.

''With great power comes great responsibility.'' is just a rephrasing of Nobless Oblige. It's also essentially the basis for "The White Man's Burden".

[clearspira]

Spider-Man is about you rising above to do good.

Because you've got a more individualistic point of view, particularly a very american way of viewing things. Look at Spiderman through the lense of someone who's less inclined to think that way and what you see is an Ubermensch raising himself above all, including the democratically constructed law. Ayn Rand says hello and so does Hitler.

''With great power comes great responsibility.''

Also.

''Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.''

Surely your response to this conundrum is what elevates you to the status of hero? The man you are describing sounds like Homelander, not Spider-Man.

''With great power comes great responsibility.'' is just a rephrasing of Nobless Oblige. It's also essentially the basis for "The White Man's Burden".

Do you genuinely think that applies to Peter Parker AKA Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man? Forget Homelander - you've just described the Comedian from Watchmen.