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| Home Front: Culture Wars | |
| America's New Mandarins | |
| 2013-02-23 | |
... I think that we are looking at something even deeper than that: the Mandarinization of America.
Passing the tests and becoming a "scholar official" was a ticket to a very good, very secure life. And there is something to like about a system like this ... especially if you happen to be good at exams. Of course, once you gave the imperial bureaucracy a lot of power, and made entrance into said bureaucracy conditional on passing a tough exam, what you have is ... a country run by people who think that being good at exams is the most important thing on earth. Sound familiar? The people who pass these sorts of admissions tests are very clever. But they're also, as time goes on, increasingly narrow. The way to pass a series of highly competitive exams is to focus every fiber of your being on learning what the authorities want, and giving it to them. ...All elites are good at rationalizing their eliteness, whether it's meritocracy or "the divine right of kings." The problem is the mandarin elite has some good arguments. They really are very bright and hardworking. It's just that they're also prone to be conformist, risk averse, obedient, and good at echoing the opinions of authority, because that is what this sort of examination system selects for. The even greater danger is that they become more and more removed from the people they are supposed to serve. ...I think that to some extent, the current political wars are a culture war not between social liberals and social conservatives, but between the values of the mandarin system and the values of those who compete in the very different culture of ordinary businesses--ones outside glamour industries like tech or design. ...the final problem, which is that this ostensibly meritocratic system increasingly selects from those with enough wealth and connections to first, understand the system, and second, prepare the right credentials to enter it--as I believe it also did in Imperial China. | |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #4 P2K: sounds like a prediction for the USA. Got to figure out how to move NH to TX. |
| Posted by: KBK 2013-02-23 19:06 |
| #3 What the 'Mandarins' fail to grasp is that China runs in cycles; Consolidation, Centralization, Expansion, Corruption, Disintegration, Regionalization, - rinse and repeat. Han, T'ang, Song, Yuan(Mongols), Ming, Manchu(Qing). Of course they have no need of real history [ie human behavior] cause they're so modern, but is of note that a lot of the bureaucrats don't quite make it (alive) into the next era. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-02-23 12:22 |
| #2 My solution -- and I think Dave Barry originally proposed this --would be to have a waitress named Helen or a truck driver named Butch on every federal board, with veto power over all spending initiatives. Chairman with Hahvahd PhD: "So we are in agreement to spend $150 million of public money researching the mating habits of the left-handed sea slug?" Helen and Butch: "Bullshit we are!" |
| Posted by: Matt 2013-02-23 10:18 |
| #1 To a large degree this has been occuring at least in the minds of some people. The so called "working slobs" that did not go to college (or the "right" college) and earn at least a masters degree (pretty soon with degree inflation a BS or BA will qualify you as aworking stiff)deserve little or no respect let alone a chance at a better life no matter how hard they work or how skilled they are. This type of person should remember the Judge's advice to Danny. "the world needs ditch diggers too" |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2013-02-23 10:13 |