Allen on Meritocracy
Explaining yet again his convictions and beliefs, Senator Allen goes into what has to be one of my more favorite topics of meritocracy:Allen, the son of a legendary football coach of the Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Rams, suggested that his football background may have numbed him to some racial complexities. 'On football teams and every team sport, you don't care about someone's religion, race or their ethnicity,' he said. 'All you care about is if that person can help your team. Can he block, punt, pass or kick. It's a true meritocracy... and it's that meritocracy that you see on a football field and on a football team that we should aspire for in our society here in America.'
Allen's 35-minute speech received polite applause and gracious reviews from the educators. 'I am pleased that he is acknowledging he made a mistake and talking about it,' said Ralph Reavis, president of Virginia University of Lynchburg. 'I'm an educator. If he says he's learned from this, I accept it.' I like that. Not only is the "Virginia Way" alive and well, we get a perspective on meritocracy.
What is a meritocracy? Let's see what wikiality says:Meritocracy is a system of government or other organization based on demonstrated ability (merit) and talent rather than by wealth, family connections, class privilege, cronyism or other historical determinants of social position and political power.
The word "meritocracy" is now often used to describe a type of society where wealth, position, and social status are in part assigned through competition or demonstrated talent and competence, on the assumption that positions of trust, responsibility and social prestige should be earned, not inherited or assigned on arbitraty quotas. Meritocracy is used to describe aggressively competitive societies, that accept large inequalities of income, wealth and status amongst the population as a function of perceived talent, merit, competence, motivation and effort. Thomas Jefferson and the ideals of classical liberalism are listed as one of many influences endorsing the idea of meritocracy, and includes examples of such societies as 19th-century Britain, modern Singapore, and the Republic of Venice.
Not a bad historical tradition to start from. I love meritocracy.
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eirishis 
3 Comments:
eirishis -- I'd strongly disagree with anyone who suggests Allen associates himself with individuals who espouse hate. Likewise, Allen as fallen over himself to apologize and atone for the remark.
All this having been said, what one can very easily read into what he is saying regarding meritocracy and know that this - above all else - is where his true roots lay.
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