Meritocracy to-morrow and meritocracy yesterday – but never meritocracy to-day

Alice couldn’t help laughing, as she said, “I don’t want you to hire me – and I don’t care for jam.”
“It’s very good jam,” said the Queen.
“Well, I don’t want any to-day, at any rate.”
“You couldn’t have it if you did want it,” the Queen said. “The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day.”
“It must come sometimes to ‘jam to-day’,” Alice objected.
“No, it can’t,” said the Queen. “It’s jam every other day: to-day isn’t any other day, you know.” — Lewis Carroll.

We’ve written a lot about meritocracy recently:

– “Howard Lutnick gives top Cantor Fitzgerald jobs to his sons Brandon and Kyle” is a very clean example of meritocracy. I mean it. And not because I have any reason to think that Brandon and Kyle have any particular merit.

– Is the civil service a meritocracy? No, it’s merit-based employment. For it to be “ocracy,” the people with merit don’t just have to get the jobs, they also have to wield power.

– Living on the Edge: Aggressive mediocrity at the summit of America’s intellectual culture. Throw in an ambassadorship and a college presidency and you’ve hit the EGOT of intellectual celebrity culture for the talentless.

Again, meritocracy is not the same as merit-based employment. In meritocracy, the people with the merit (Howard Lutnick, etc.) get to run things, and one of the perks of merit is getting sweet jobs for their kids. There’s a thin line between meritocracy and nepotism . . . hey, here’s Bob Dylan’s talentless kid!

This came up in class the other day, and someone pointed out that meritocracy usually seems to be presented as an ideal more than as a reality.

To paraphrase the White Queen, “Meritocracy to-morrow and meritocracy yesterday – but never meritocracy to-day.”

“Meritocracy to-morrow” is the appeal of meritocracy as an ideal, happening in the future so you don’t have to worry about its current consequences such as the careers of Brandon and Kyle Lutnick. “Meritocracy yesterday” is the appeal of an idealized past, something that we supposedly used to have.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that merit-based employment is impossible. The problem’s with the ocracy. Or, if you’re Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, it’s not a problem at all.