… the technocrats were — and are — committed to the concept of rule by the best and the brightest. This is not a temporary stage on the road to a higher and ultimately more equal stage of society to gentry liberals. It is a natural division of power and responsibility based on innate differences in human beings. Gentry liberals believe that people who score high on SATs, do well in college, and get through the PhD process are, well, smarter than people who don’t do those things and that society will be better off if the dumb people get out of the way and let the smart ones make the important decisions.The problem is that scoring high on tests doesn't necessarily mean that you're all that bright. It may just mean that you're good at taking tests.
For a Christian, the belief in the equal value of all people in God’s eyes is a bedrock belief. Every human being is created directly by God; every human soul is beloved by God. Human beings are not all alike, and we have different gifts and different abilities. But each of us was created to be exactly who and what we are by the Author of the Universe, and we believe that God loves and values the child with Downs’ syndrome as much as he loves and values the Nobel-prize winning economist.
That’s right. God thinks Trig Palin is just as marvelous and wonderful and adorable as Paul Krugman. The homeless old guy with the shakes down by the subway is as important to God’s vision for the world as the Rhodes Scholar passing him by.
Precisely. And Trig Palin is certainly more adorable than Paul Krugman.
The problem is that all organizations are run by personality and expediency, the government included, as well as newspapers and car dealerships. Many will say they have a way they go about it, rules and methods to abide by, and reasons for those rules. Grand educational schemes develop so that those rules and methods are internalized and enter the conversation of each person involved, along with any associative proverbs and nuggets of wisdom, tee shirts and bumper stickers, whys and wherefores, with comparisons to more supposedly and demonstrably inferior methods. But when it comes down to the details of daily operation, decisions become politically expedient. That expediency is like water. It has a way of finding places to go, and does damage to the structure and foundation, whether that be equality or meritocracy or what-have-you.
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