I f you didn’t know how to drive, would you get behind the wheel of a school bus? Of course not—you’re a good person with a conscience. Before assuming that responsibility, you would learn from the safest drivers you could find, because you don’t want to kill children!
In Meritocracy, those without merit will have equal access to the best education money can buy. They will go to school, get educated, and start making informed decisions in elections. Want to vote for a leadership position in a given field? Take an assessment that demonstrates knowledge, ability, or experience in that field. Just like you wouldn’t drive a school bus without having a clue, why would you want people voting without having a clue? Meritocracy works by ensuring that all the people making government decisions understand the choices they are making. This is the only responsible way to run a government.
I think it’s important to remember that everyone has talents and unique experiences. These are the things that can be molded for the good of society. These are your potential merit that you may not be recognizing yourself. If you think you have no merit, have you considered the possibility that society may simply not recognize your merits, or even worse may actively discourage you from exercising them?
Our current culture most definitely discourages merit. You might be an upstanding, honest, intelligent, hard working person… these are merits. However, in our current culture, if you haven’t made (or been handed) a lot of money it is unlikely that such merits will be recognized.
Even if you think you have no merit, you are here, and that probably means you are thinking about the good of society beyond short-term profits. In a society where the standards of merit are so low, even the simple act of thinking beyond short-term profits constitutes merit.
Being here means that you have a quality of thought that constitutes merit, but you must recognize it yourself, refine it and strengthen it.
So why not work toward a culture which can recognize merit beyond short-term profits? In the process of doing this you will be practicing self-recognition, clarifying your thoughts and strengthening your weaknesses, which is synonymous with building merit.